On the Semantic Ambiguity of Chinese Causative Resultative V-Vs

Languages

This article proposes a new description of Cantonese causative–resultative constructions (CRCs), constructions with two verbal elements relevant to the cause and the effect of an event respectively. We present a constructional schema for the CRC with three argument types and without using traditional categories—such as subject, object and pseudo-passivation, present various syntactic and semantic properties, and subsume constructions such as the comparative construction and numerous particle constructions under this banner. We then argue against traditional approaches to CRCs with two lexical verbs that treat the argument structure of the CRC as composed from argument structures of individual verbs (the decompositional approach); instead, CRC arguments belong to the entire construction and have only semantic orientation-based relationships with individual verbs (the holistic approach). We show how our account can shed light on Sinitic typology and the grammaticalisation mechanism of...

2004

This paper investigates a subtype of resultative predicate marked by the verbal particle-can in Cantonese and associated with adversative meaning. A number of central properties of this verbal particle and issues related to the phenomena of causativity and unaccusativity are explored with particular reference to the aspectual properties of the V-can predicates. We also examine the constraints on the structural projection of arguments of each type of predicate.

This talk will deal with the issue of Mandarin Chinese complex V-V verbs formed by means of a causative light V 1 , also in a comparative perspective, taking into account other Sinitic languages. Different languages may express causativity in different ways, according to the items available in their respective lexical inventories (cf. Ramchand 2008) and other language-specific characteristics. Mandarin Chinese has few lexical causatives (labile verbs), e.g.

1996

According to Li & Thompson (1981), Chinese serial verb constructions consisting of two verb phrases denoting two separate events can be classified into those having alternating, consecutive, purpose or circumstance relations. These classifications may overlap and a serial verb construction may be ambiguous between different interpretations. It has been argued in a recent study (Chan 1996) that there exists an entailment relation between the different interpretations of an ambiguous serial verb construction. In the present study, it is argued that because of the entailment relations between the different interpretations, the truth conditional definition of ambiguity has to be modified if it is to be applied to Chinese serial verb constructions which are ambiguous. In truth-conditional semantics, it is suggested that an ambiguous sentence is true for one interpretation but false for another relative to a certain state of affairs. This definition of ambiguity is not adequate for an amb...

ENGLISH LINGUISTICS, 2000

2019

This study expands on Xiao and McEnery’s (2004) theory of aspect by investigating the interaction of qilai, whose main function is that of directional Resultative Verb Complement (RVC) meaning ‘up/upward,’ with verbal aspect and situation types. One hundred and fifty utterance featuring states, i.e. adjectival predicates, co-occurring with qilai were examined from lexical, sentential, and pragmatic perspectives. The data were retrieved from the Weibo collection included in the BCC Corpus (Beijing Language & Culture University Corpus Center). The survey revealed that when adjectival predicates occur with qilai, they undergo a situation-type change, from states to processes, therefore qilai should not be considered only an inceptive marker focusing on initial point, ingressive dynamicity and continuity, as proposed by Xiao and McEnery, but perhaps also a “situation-type-change marker.” This study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the rather understudied structure ‘adject...

Hsuan Chang Humanities Journal, 2009

This paper compares the crosslinguistic variation of causative-unaccusative alternation (e.g. John broke the vase vs. The vase broke) in Japanese, English and Mandarin Chinese, from morphology and syntactic point of view. In addition to the over case markings, Japanese has very complex derivational morphological systems to mark the transitivity of their verbs. English transitivity is mainly expressed by syntactic frame in which the verb appears. Mandarin Chinese, on the other hand lacks monomorphemic change of state verbs (i.e., unaccusatives) and the language employs rich resultative verb compounds (RVCs) which are comprised of two atelic verbs: activity and state. Mandarin RVCs play a significant role in the argument changing process.

Language and Linguistics

This study re-examines the widely studied V-qilai 'rise-come' construction in Mandarin Chinese. It first distinguishes V-qilai + predicate construction from the lexical verb qilai and -qilai as a lexical inchoative morpheme, which do not require an additional complement. In addition, three variations of the V-qilai + predicate pattern are identified according to the complement functions: namely (i) a descriptive complement, (ii) an object-oriented descriptive predicate, and (iii) a proposition clause (raising construction). These three variants are subsumed under and accounted for by the proposed uniformed secondary predication structure, while vary with their respective complement structures. In addition, the occurrences of V-qilai were drawn from Academia Sinica Corpus. Based on the above classification, it is shown that there is a far greater preponderance of canonical qilai usages over the V-qilai + complement ones, indicating that the latter patterns are still emerging ...

This work presents a theory of linguistic representation that attempts to capture the syntactic structure of verbs and their arguments. My framework is based on the assumption that the proper representation of argument structure is event structure. Furthermore, I develop the hypothesis that event structure is syntactic structure, and argue that verb meanings are compositionally derived in the syntax from verbalizing heads, functional elements that license eventive interpretations, and verbal roots, abstract concepts drawn from encyclopedic knowledge. The overall goal of the enterprise is to develop a theory that is able to transparently relate the structure and meaning of verbal arguments. By hypothesis, languages share the same inventory of primitive building blocks and are governed by the same set of constraints-all endowed by principles of Universal Grammar and subjected to parametric variations. Support for my theory is drawn from both Mandarin Chinese and English. In particular, the organization of the Mandarin verbal system provides strong evidence for the claim that activity and state are the only two primitive verb types in Chineseachievements and accomplishments are syntactically-derived complex categories. As a specific instance of complex event composition, I examine Mandarin resultative verb compounds and demonstrate that a broad range of variations can be perspicuously captured in my framework. I show that patterns of argument sharing in these verbal compounds can be analyzed as control, thus grounding argument structure in wellknown syntactic constraints such as the Minimum Distance Principle. Finally, I argue that cross-linguistic differences in the realization of verbal arguments can be reduced to variations in the way functional elements interact with verbal roots. Overall, my work not only contributes to our understanding of how events are syntactically represented, but also explicates interactions at the syntax-semantics interface, clarifying the relationship between surface form, syntactic structure, and logical form. A theory of argument structure grounded in independently-motivated syntactic constraints, on the one hand, and the semantic structure of events, on the other hand, is able to account for a wide range of empirical facts with few stipulations.

Chinese Lexical Semantics. CLSW 2022, 2023

Analytic causative constructions with 使 shǐ 'make' and 让 ràng 'make, let', commonly used as [NP1 + SHI/RANG + NP2 + VP], are canonical constructions in Mandarin. Previous scholarship has rarely compared the interactions between the two constructions and the verbs in the VP slot. This study fills this gap by using a collostructional analysis. The prototypical verbs, prototypical constructional meanings and distinctive verbs are investigated. It is found that 1) The prototypical verbs used in SHI construction are change-of-state and change-ofpossession verbs, whose constructional meaning refers to the change of NP2 in quantity or quality under the effect of NP1; for RANG construction, its prototypical verbs are psychological verbs and verbs of getting information, and its constructional meaning refers to NP2's perception of something under the influence of NP1; 2) The 17 distinctive verbs for SHI construction are change-of-possession verbs, existential verbs, motion verbs, verbs of phenomenon, change-of-state verbs, verbs of physical manipulation and creation; the 14 distinctive verbs for RANG construction are change-of-state verbs, psychological verbs, verbs of getting information, intellectual verbs and change-of-possession verbs. Although there is overlap in verb categories, the specific verbs which have different preferences for the two constructions are significantly different.

The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal

One of the most widely used constructions in Korean is the so-called light verb construction (LVC) involving an active-denoting verbal noun (VN) together with the light verb ha-ta 'do'. This paper first discusses the argument composition of the LVC, mixed properties of VNs both of which have provided a challenge to syntactic analyses with a strict version of X-bar theory. The paper shows the mechanism of multiple classification of category types with systematic inheritance can provide an effective way of capturing these mixed properties. In particular, it assumes that VNs have both [N +] and [V +] features to reflect their dual properties. The paper also addresses the issue of relatedness and divergence between the VNs with an accusative argument and those without it. An implementation of the analysis within the LKB (Linguistics Knowledge Building) system also proves its feasibility and efficiency.

Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 2019

Resultative verb compounds (RVCs) in Mandarin appear in a V1-V2 sequence and have three major subtypes-result-state, directional and completive RVCs with different degrees of compositionality depending on the extent to which the compound's meaning can be derived from the meanings of the component verbs. The derivation of the RVC has been analyzed as a lexical or syntactic process. Previous acquisition studies show that the RVC's compositionality and event structure are not fully acquired before the age of three. Findings conflict on whether the acquisition process revealed by early RVCs is usage-based or rule-based. We examined longitudinal data from two Mandarin-speaking children and administered a novel verb experiment on 32 children. The lexicalist approach to RVC formation is a better account for our data than the syntactic approach. Our data lend support to rule-based learning of RVCs. Children master the event structure of RVCs and its interaction with aspect gradually. The headedness of the RVC in relation to event structure depends Acknowledgments This article was based on my MPhil thesis written under the supervision of Thomas Hun-tak Lee as a member of the Language Acquisition Lab at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. See endnote 1 for more.

In this talk, we will consider Mandarin Chinese resultative compounds in the light of the micro-parametric approach proposed by Son & Svenonius (2008) and Son (2008). Son & Svenonius (2008) show the inadequacy of a macro-parametric approach (e.g. Snyder’s 2001, Beck & Snyder’s 2001), pointing out that the crucial issue is not only if a language allows (e.g. English) or not resultatives (e.g. Spanish), but what kind of resultatives are allowed: weak vs. strong resultatives (Washio 1997), taking apart spurious resultatives. Son & Svenonius (2008) and Son (2008) propose that the cross-linguistic variation depends upon the kind of lexical items available in the lexicon of a language. Building on Ramchand (2008), on the assumption of a tight correlation between the morphosyntax and the semantics of event structure, they assume a fine-grained functional structure, which is taken to be universal. Each node in the functional structure must be licensed by lexical insertion (see Fábregas’s ‘exhaustive lexicalization’, 2007). According to Son & Svenonius, the variation in the availability of resultatives depends on the availability of lexical items able to lexicalize res (optional lower component of verbal meaning responsible for a result state entailment) and pred (uppermost predicative layer for the state). Accordingly, a language like Japanese has morphemes, e.g. く –ku, that can lexicalize pred but not res, thus it allows only resultatives with verbs that independently lexicalize res (weak resultatives). In contrast, Korean has a functional item, 게-key, able to lexicalize both res and pred, thus allows process verbs to form resultatives (strong resultatives). English has a null counterpart (phonologically empty lexical item) to Korean 게-key. In this talk, we will take into account Mandarin Chinese data from corpora, literary works as well as the literature on the topic and we will analyse resultative compounds adopting the above-described framework. We will argue that in Mandarin resultative compounds it is the second constituent itself which is able to lexicalize both res and pred, along with the resultant state AP. In the literature, the second constituent of Mandarin resultative compounds is often considered a verbal element. Actually, most of the V2s able to appear in resultative compounds are adjectival items, e.g. 干 gān ‘dry’, 干净 gānjìng ‘clean’, 累 lèi ‘tired’, 湿 shī ‘wet’, that can act as intransitive change of state predicates and possess dynamic features (e.g. Sybesma 1997, Xiao & McEnery 2004, Liu 2010); thus we argue that they are items endowed with both adjectival and verbal features. Moreover, non-adjectival verbs too, mainly unaccusatives (e.g. 死 sǐ ‘die’, 断 duàn ‘break’, 坏 huài ‘ruin’, 醒 xǐng ‘wake up’) can appear as V2s of resultative compounds. Since the V2 of a resultative compound is a verbal item which specifies a change of state, it is able to lexicalize both res and pred. This would account for the existence of strong resultatives in Mandarin. However, Mandarin seems to allow even more freedom in the formation of resultative compounds than in English: for instance, Mandarin freely allows V2s such as 湿 shī ‘wet’, 脏 zāng ‘dirty’, 断 duàn ‘break’ as V2s, whereas English generally does not allow adjectives as wet, dirty, broken (Goldberg 1995, Wechsler 2005); unlike English, Mandarin allows V2s that contradict (or even have nothing to do with) the result implied by V1, e.g. 洗脏 xǐzāng ‘wash-dirty’, 洗破 xǐpò ‘wash-torn’ or 洗皱 xǐzhòu ‘wash-wrinkled’ (Talmy 2000, Chen 2008). Given these and other differences that we will point out, it can be hypothesized that the greater flexibility in Mandarin is linked to the use of V2s that lexicalize both res and pred, along with the resultant state, without resorting to any other specific lexical item to lexicalize the intermediate projections (cf. Korean and English). Finally, we will show that this kind of analysis based on a syntactic decomposition of the event structure also enables us to support the position that Mandarin resultative compounds are left-headed (e.g. Cheng & Huang 1994) due to structural reasons. References BECK, S. & SNYDER (2001). Complex predicates and goal PP’s: Evidence for a semantic parameter. In A.H.J. Do, L. Domínguez & A. Johansen (eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla, vol. 1, pp. 114–122. CHEN, J. (2008). The Acquisition of Verb Compounding in Mandarin Chinese. Ph.D. dissertation, Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit. CHENG, L.L.S. & HUANG, C.T.J. (1994). On the Argument Structure of Resultative Compounds. In M.Y. Chenand and O.L. Tzeng (eds.), In Honour of William S-Y. Wang: Interdisciplinary Studies on Language and Language Change. Taipei: Pyramid Press, 187-221. FÁBREGAS, A. (2007). An exhaustive lexicalization account of directional complements. In M. Bašíc, M. Pantcheva, M. Son & P. Svenonius (eds.), Tromsø Working Papers on Language and Linguistics: Nordlyd 34.2, Special issue on Space, Motion, and Result. Tromsø: University of Tromsø, pp. 165–199. Available at http://www.ub.uit.no/baser/nordlyd/. GOLDBERG, A. (1995). Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: Chicago University Press. LIU, C.S.L. (2010). The positive morpheme in Chinese and the adjectival structure. Lingua 120:1010-1056. RAMCHAND, G.C. (2008). Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First-Phase Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. SNYDER, W. (2001). On the nature of syntactic variation: Evidence from complex predicates and complex word-formation. Language 77:324–342. SON, M. (2008). Resultatives in Korean, Japanese and English: Revisited from a Micro-Parametric Approach to Linguistic Variation. Paper presented at the 18th Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference (JK18), The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY), Manhattan, November 13-15, 2008. SON, M. & SVENONIUS, P. (2008). Microparameters of cross-linguistic variation: Directed motion and resultatives. In N. Abner & J. Bishop (eds.), Proceedings of the 27th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla, 388-396. SYBESMA, R.P.E. (1997). Why Chinese verb-le is a resultative predicate. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 6 (3):215-261. TALMY, L. (2000). Toward a Cognitive semantics: Tipology and process in concept structuring. Cambridge, MA: MIT press. WASHIO, R. (1997). Resultatives, compositionality and language variation. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 6:1–49. WECHSLER, S. (2005). Resultatives under the ‘event-argument homomorphism’ model of telicity. In N. Erteschik-Shir and T. Rappoport (eds.), The Syntax of Aspect. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 255–273. XIAO, R. & McENERY, R. (2004). Aspect in Mandarin Chinese: A Corpus-based Study. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.