Abbreviations Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Research objects 1.2 Some mysteries shared in de-related constructions 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Theoretical foundations 1.5 Tne organization of the book Chapter 2 The status of de 2.1 A brief history of de 2.2 Clitic or affix? 2.3 At which level does de-affixation operate? 2.4 De and A-not-A 2.5 Summary Chapter 3 Potential de construction 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Some mysteries in potential de construction 3.3 The grammaticalization of de and bude 3.4 De and bude as functional heads 3.5 The derivation of V-de and V-bude 3.6 The derivation of V-de-R and V-bu-R 3.7 Puzzles and asymmetries revisited 3.8 Summary Chapter 4 Resultative V-de Construction 4.1 Some mysteries in resultative V-de construction 4.2 The analysis of J. Huang (2006) 4.3 A morphosyntactic approach to resultative V-de construction 4.4 Mysteries revisited 4.5 Issues on the external morphological merger between V and -de 4.6 Summary Chapter 5 Descriptive V-de construction 5.1 Some mysteries in descriptive V-de construction 5.2 A Morphosyntactic approach to descriptive V-de construction 5.3 Mysteries revisited 5.4 Two types of verb-copying construction 5.5 Summary Chapter 6 The apparent de-le alternation construction 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The status of [yi + CL + de + NP] 6.3 The structure of de-le alternation sentences 6.4 Discussion 6.5 Summary Chapter 7 A typological view of de 7.1 Summary 7.2 De and A-not-A revisited 7.3 De from a macro- & micro-parameters view 7.4 Further research References