Home Chinese synthetic verbs: a further challenge to manner/result complementarity on the basis of lexical root meaning analysis
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chinese synthetic verbs: a further challenge to manner/result complementarity on the basis of lexical root meaning analysis

  • Tianyu Li EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: April 21, 2023

Abstract

This paper introduces Chinese synthetic verbs and analyses their contributions to debates in manner/result complementarity studies and cognitive typology studies. Chinese synthetic verbs simultaneously express manner information and path/result information, but encode them into separate root slots under Beavers and Koontz-Garboden’s (2012. Manner and result in the roots of verbal meaning. Linguistic Inquiry 43(3). 331–369) scopal modifier test, so they differ from English “manner+result verbs” and further challenge the manner/result complementarity hypothesis. Synthetic verbs followed by redundant path/result verbs constitute double-framing structures that twice encode the framing information, and the non-motion case, i.e., the “synthetic verb+result verb” structure, supplements Croft et al.’s (2010. Revising Talmy’s typological classification of complex event constructions. In Hans C. Boas (ed.), Contrastive studies in construction grammar, vol. 10, 201–235. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company) classification that only includes the motion case, so that Chinese synthetic verbs complement the discussion on double-framing structures. This paper thereby further falsifies the manner/result complementarity hypothesis and provides an overall illustration of the double-framing structure in cognitive typology. This paper also illustrates the diachronic changes of manner, which might be universal and await further investigation.


Corresponding author: Tianyu Li, Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute, Beijing, China, E-mail:

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

Beavers, John & Andrew Koontz-Garboden. 2012. Manner and result in the roots of verbal meaning. Linguistic Inquiry 43(3). 331–369. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00093.Search in Google Scholar

Beavers, John & Andrew Koontz-Garboden. 2017. Result verbs, scalar change, and the typology of motion verbs. Language 93(4). 842–876. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2017.0060.Search in Google Scholar

Croft, William, Barðdal Jóhanna, Willem Hollmann, Violeta Sotirova & Chiaki Taoka. 2010. Revising Talmy’s typological classification of complex event constructions. In Hans C. Boas (ed.), Contrastive studies in construction grammar, vol. 10, 201–235. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/cal.10.09croSearch in Google Scholar

Dictionary Editorial Office, Institute of LinguisticsChinese Academy of Social Sciences. 2016. Xiandai Hanyu Cidian [Modern Chinese dictionary], 7th edn. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Search in Google Scholar

Dowty, David. 1979. Word meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel.10.1007/978-94-009-9473-7Search in Google Scholar

Geuder, Wilhelm & Matthias Weisgerber. 2008. Manner of movement and the conceptualisation of force. Slides of talk given at Journée d’étude ‘Il’y a manière et manière’. Arras: Université d’Artois.Search in Google Scholar

Goldberg, Adele E. 2010. Verbs, constructions and semantic frames. In Malka Rappaport Hovav, Edit Doron & Ivy Sichel (eds.), Lexical semantics, syntax, and event structure, 39–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544325.003.0003Search in Google Scholar

Hu, Chirui. 2005. Cong yinhan dao chengxian (shang): shi lun zhong gu cihui de yige benzhi bianhua [From implication to explication (I): A tentative discussion of an essential change of the mediaeval ancient lexicons]. Yuyanxue Luncong [Essays on Linguistics] 31. 1–22. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Search in Google Scholar

Hu, Chirui. 2008. Cong yinhan dao chengxian (xia): Cihui bianhua yingxiang yufa bianhua [From implication to explication (II): The change of lexicons affects the change of grammar]. Yuyanxue Luncong [Essays on Linguistics] 38. 99–127. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Search in Google Scholar

Husband, E. Matthew. 2011. Rescuing manner/result complementary from certain death. Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society 47(1). 111–124.Search in Google Scholar

Jackendoff, Ray. 1985. Multiple subcategorization and the theta criterion: The case of Climb. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 3(3). 271–295. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00154264.Search in Google Scholar

Kearns, Kate. 2000. Semantics. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Search in Google Scholar

Kiparsky, Paul. 1997. Remarks on denominal verbs. In Alex Alsina, Joan Bresnan & Peter Sells (eds.), Complex predicates, 473–499. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Levin, Beth & Malka Rappaport Hovav. 2013. Lexicalized meaning and manner/result complementarity. In Boban Arsenijević, Berit Gehrke & Rafael Marín (eds.), Studies in the composition and decomposition of event predicates, 49–70. Dordrecht: Springer.10.1007/978-94-007-5983-1_3Search in Google Scholar

Li, Na & Yuzhi Shi. 1997. Hanyu dongci kaobei de yanhua guocheng [The evolutionary processes of verb copy constructions in Chinese]. Guowai Yuyanxue [Linguistics abroad] (3). 32–38.Search in Google Scholar

Li, Tianyu. 2020. Hanyu yundong shijian cihua leixing yanjiu zhong de jige wenti [A study of the lexicalization patterns of motion events in Chinese]. Dangdai Yuyanxue [Contemporary Linguistics] 22(3). 395–410.Search in Google Scholar

Rappaport Hovav, Malka. 2008. Lexicalized meaning and the internal structure of events. In Susan Rothstein (ed.), Theoretical and crosslinguistic approaches to the semantics of aspect, 13–42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/la.110.03hovSearch in Google Scholar

Rappaport Hovav, Malka & Beth Levin. 2010. Reflections on manner/result complementarity. In Malka Rappaport Hovav, Edit Doron & Ivy Sichel (eds.), Lexical semantics, syntax, and event structure, 21–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544325.003.0002Search in Google Scholar

Shi, Wenlei. 2014. Hanyu yundong shijian cihua leixing de lishi kaocha [A diachronic study on the lexicalization patterns of motion event in Chinese]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Search in Google Scholar

Shi, Wenlei & Yicheng Wu. 2014. Which way to move: The evolution of motion expressions in Chinese. Linguistics 52(5). 1237–1292.10.1515/ling-2014-0024Search in Google Scholar

Shi, Yuzhi. 2003. Gujin hanyu dongci gainian-hua fangshi de bianhua ji qi dui yufa de yingxiang [The change of conceptualization of verbs in the history of Chinese and its effect on grammar. Hanyu Xuexi [Chinese Language Learning] 4. 1–8.Search in Google Scholar

Talmy, Leonard. 1991. Path to realization: A typology of event integration. Buffalo Working Papers in Linguistics 91(1). 147–187.10.3765/bls.v17i0.1620Search in Google Scholar

Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Toward a cognitive semantics, vol. 2: Typology and process in concept structuring. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/6848.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Yang, Rongxiang. 2005. Yuyi tezheng fenxi zai yufa-shi yanjiu zhong de zuoyong—V1+V2+O” xiang “V+C+O” yanbian zai tantao [The function of semantic feature analysis in the research of historical syntax: evolution from “V1+V2+O” to “V+C+O” revisited]. Beijing Daxue Xuebao (Zhexue Shehui Kexue Ban) [Journal of Peking University (Philosophy and Social Sciences)] 2. 51–59.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2021-11-27
Accepted: 2023-03-30
Published Online: 2023-04-21
Published in Print: 2023-05-25

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 19.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/cog-2021-0121/html
Scroll to top button