Chapter 4 Findings
4.1 Event Types
Tang T.-C. (2000:14-15) suggested a criteria for the distinctions between dynamic verbs and stative verbs: Compatibility with Imperative Sentences , Collocation with Benefactive Role, Collocation with Patient Role, Functioning as Complements of Verbs of Intention, and Functioning as Complements of Verbs of Causation .
Table 8: The Distinctions between Dynamic Verbs and Stative Verbs Verb
Collocation with
Based on the criteria, Mandarin emotion ve rbs can be divided into dynamic and stative verbs.
In addition to the criteria proposed by Tang T.-C. (2000), previous literature argued that aspectual properties serve to convey event types of sentences (Vendler 1967, Smith 1997, Van Voorst 1988, Levin & Rappaport 2005). In this study, we notice that Mandarin emotion verbs display a variation of aspectual properties that helps to examine and further verify the event types of verbs. The aspectual variations are illustrated as below:
(20) Collocation with the PROGRESSIVE aspectual marker 正在 zhengzai/在 zai a. *我正在高興你對我吐露心聲。
wo zhengzai gaoxing ni dui wo tulu xinsheng I PROG glad you to I tell thoughts
‘I am glading that you told me your thoughts. ’
*黃樹剛正在後悔劫機行為但不正在後悔反共。
Shu-Gang Huang zhengzai houhui jieji xingwei dan bu zhengzai houhui fangong
Shu-Gang Huang PROG regret hijack an airplane but not PROG regret Anti-Communism
‘Shu-Gang Huang is regretting for his hijacking an airplane but is not regretting for Anti-Communism.’
*他在喜歡打網球。
ta zai xihuan da wangqiu he PROG like play tennis
‘He is liking to play tennis. ’
*爸爸正在害怕坐飛機。
baba zhengzai haipa zuo feiji father PROG fear travel by airplane
‘Father is fearing to fly in an airplane. ’
*這個運動在累人。
zhe ge yun dong zai leiren this exercise PROG tiring
‘This exercise is tiring people.’
*票價在很嚇人。
piaojia zai hen xiaren
ticket fare PROG very frightful
‘The ticket rare is frightening people very much. ’
b. 他現在正在安慰著我。
ta xianzai zhengzai anwei zhao wo he now PROG comfort I
‘He is comforting me now.’
飢餓和勞累在折磨他 jie he laolei zai zhemo ta
hunger and tiredness PROG torment he
‘Hunger and tiredness is tormenting him. ’
她在引誘我犯罪。
ta zai yinyou wo fanzui
she PROG seduce I commit a crime
‘She is seducing me to commit a crime. ’
這個小孩正在激怒他的媽媽。
zhege xiaohai zhengzai jinu ta de mam a this-CL child PROG anger he DE mother
‘This child is angering his mother. ’
(21) Collocation with the PERFECTIVE aspectual marker 了 le c. *我高興了你對我吐露心聲。
wo gaoxing le ni dui wo tulu xinsheng I glad PERF you to I tell thoughts
‘I have been glad that you told me your thoughts.’
*黃樹剛後悔了劫機行為但不後悔了反共。
Shu-Gang Huang houhui le jieji xingwei dan bu houhui le fangong
Shu-Gang Huang regret PERF hijack an airplane but not regret PERF Anti-Communism
‘Shu-Gang Huang has regretted for his hijacking an airplane but has not regretted for Anti-Communism.’
*他喜歡了打網球。
ta xihuan le da wangqiu he like PERF play tennis
‘He has liked to play tennis. ’
*爸爸害怕了坐飛機。
baba haipa le zuo feiji
father fear PERF travel by airplane
‘Father has feared to fly in an airplane. ’
*這個運動很累人了。
zhe ge yun dong hen leiren le this exercise very tiring PERF
‘This exercise has been very tiring. ’
*票價很嚇人了。
piaojia hen xiaren le
ticket fare very frightful PERF
‘The ticket rare is has been very frightful. ’
d. 他安慰了我。
ta anwei le wo he comfort PERF I
‘He has comforted me.’
飢餓和勞累折磨了他 jie he laolei zhemo le ta
hunger and tiredness torment PERF he
‘Hunger and tiredness has tormented him. ’
她引誘了我。
ta yinyou le wo she seduce PERF I
‘She has seduced me.’
這個小孩激怒了他的媽媽。
zhege xiaohai jinu le ta de mama
this-CL child anger PERF he DE mother
‘This child has angered his mother. ’
In the discussion of the aspect, Li and Thompson (1981:202, 218) clearly pointed out that “[Perfective] le is never used with verbs expressing states that do not represent bounded events”, and “only activity verbs can take zai to indicate the durative aspect. ” Therefore, the above examples show different event types of emotional predicates, i.e.
stative and dynamic type verbs. The more stative verbs 高興 gaoxing “glad”, 後悔 houhui “regret” , 喜歡 xihuan “like”, 害怕 haipa “fear”, 累人 leiran “tiring”, and 嚇人 xiaren “frightful” cannot collocate with the PROGRESSIVE marker 正 在 / 在 zhengzai/zai and PERFECTIVE marker 了 le. On the contrary, the more dynamic verbs 安慰 anwei “comfort”, 折磨 zhemo “torment”, 引誘 yinyou ‘seduce’, and 激怒 jinu
‘anger’ are allowed to collocate with either the PROGRESSIVE marker 正在/在 zhengzai/zai or PERFECTIVE marker 了 le.
The delimitative aspect is also a distinguishing aspectual property of activity verbs.
As Li and Thompson (1981:232-234) mentioned that delimitative aspect is structurally represented by reduplicating the verb form, and only an activity verb can be reduplicated to indicate this aspect6.
(22) Reduplication of Verbs
a. *我高興高興你對我吐露心聲。
wo gaoxing-gaoxing ni dui wo tulu xinsheng I glad-glad you to I tell thoughts
‘I am glad that you told me your thoughts a little. ’
*黃樹剛後悔後悔劫機行為。
Shu-Gang Huang houhui-houhui jieji xingwei
6 Li and Thompson (1981:235) further explained that the function of a resultative verb compound is to signal that a given event leads to a sesult, so a resultative verb compoun d cannot be reduplicated for delimitative aspect.
Shu-Gang Huang regret-regret hijack an airplane
‘Shu-Gang Huang regretted for his hijacking an airplane a little.’
*他喜歡喜歡打網球。
ta xihuan-xihuan da wangqiu he like-like play tennis
‘He likes to play tennis a little. ’
*爸爸害怕害怕坐飛機。
baba haipa-haipa zuo feiji father fear-fear travel by airplane
‘Father feared to fly in an airplane a little. ’
b. 你安慰安慰媽媽。
ni anwei-anwei mama you comfort-comfort mother
‘Try to comforted Mother a little. ’
我要折磨折磨這個人。
wo yao zhemo-zhemo zhege ren I want torment-torment this-CL person
‘I want to torment this person a little. ’
試著引誘引誘他。
shizhe yinyou-yinyou ta try seduce-seduce he
In addition to aspectual variation, some verbs can also be used as distinguishing criteria to indicate the event type of verbs.
(23) collocation with aspectual verbs: 繼續 jixu “continue”, and 停止 tingzhi “stop”
a. 他繼續安慰媽媽。
ta jixu anwei mama
he continue comfort mother
‘He continues to comfort Mother. ’ b. 他停止安慰媽媽。
ta tingzhi anwei mama he stop comfort mother
‘He stop to comfort Mother. ’
The aspectual variations among verbs, such as Imperfective or Durative asp ect in (20), Perfective aspect in (21), Delimitative aspect in ( 22) and other criteria in (23) all document that in terms of event types, Mandarin emotion verbs can be separated into stative and dynamic types.