本文主張現代漢語中動句於前句法部門形成。我們首先論證此句式之句首名詞的確為句法上的主語，其次論證此主語非由NP 移動所衍生，而為基底結構生成，且語意上的主語僅存在於前句法結構。本研究結果支持Authier 跟Reed（1996）的結論：中動句在不同語言可能有不同的衍生機制。

The purpose of this paper is to argue for a presyntactic approach to middle
formation in Mandarin Chinese. The subjecthood of the clause-initial NP in the construction at issue is first demonstrated. It is thus not true that these sentences may only be derived by topicalization along with a null subject, as Li and Thompson (1981) propose. It is further argued that the patient NP in a grammatical subject position is base-generated as external argument of the middle verb and that the logical subject of the middle verb is suppressed and present only at some presyntactic structure. This presyntactic approach to middle formation in Mandarin Chinese is supported by the comparison between middles and ba-constructions involving intransitive V-de resultatives as well as by the comparison between middles and inchoatives. The findings of this study thus lend support to a view put forth by Authier and Reed (1996) that middle formation is not homogeneous across languages.