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Abstract Word-formation and syntax both function to combine linguistic units and yield structured objects that can receive appropriate interpretations phonologically and semantically. Their prod¬ucts-words and phrases-manifest properties that are different in some aspects but similar in others, giving rise to the inevitable question of whether words are generated via lexical or syntac¬tic rules. Different answers to this question define two approaches to word-formation: lexicalist and syntactic. This paper provides an overview of the syntactic approach and its application to word-formation in Chinese, together with an outlook on possible directions for its future re¬search. It points out that the syntactic approach, which hypothesizes that syntax is responsible for building structures of both words and sentences, has proved to be conceptually more economical and empirically more adequate. Its extensive application in research on Chinese word-formation has helped solve many problems and provided new insights into the data.
Key words: syntactic approach to word formation; lexicalism; compound; Distributed Morphol¬ogy; Single Engine
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