CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.3 Organization of the Thesis
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b. What semantic prosodies do maimai, jiaoyi or maoyi bring out?
c. What frame elements are evoked by maimai, jiaoyi and maoyi, respectively?
1.2 Data
The data for the analysis in the study is from the Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus 4.0 (Sinica Corpus) of up to 11 million words (http://asbc.iis.sinica.edu.tw/). It contains both written and spoken contemporary Mandarin with different topics in various areas. There are 280 tokens for maimai (買賣), 843 tokens for jiaoyi (交易), and 928 tokens for maoyi (貿易) in the corpus.
1.3 Organization of the Thesis
After introducing our motivation and purpose for the study, we will review previous researches on near-synonyms based on different approaches in Chapter Two.
Chapter Three introduces the theoretical concepts, the data and the methodology for this study. Chapter Four provides data results and discussion on the transaction words.
Chapter Five concludes the study and provide suggestions for further research.
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CHAPTER II
PREVIOUS STUDIES ON NEAR SYNONYMS
With the technical progress in corpora, researchers have extensively taken a corpus-based approach to the studies of near-synonyms in recent years. With
quantitative calculation, the distributional patterns of data can be well recognized as the evidence for linguistic analysis, and the subtle contrasts within a set of
synonymous words can be easily captured. Tsai et al. (1996), Liu (2002), Liu et al.
(2005), Lin (2010), Chief et al. (2000), and Xiao and McEnery (2006) all positively identify the advantages of applying corpora to their studies on near-synonyms.
However, the frameworks they adopt in each research are not entirely the same.
Previous studies primarily approach near-synonyms from four different perspectives:
feature-based, MARVS-based, frame-based, and collocation and semantic prosody-based. In this chapter, we will review and remark on studies of those different frameworks, and then point out the direction of this study.
2.1 Feature-based Studies
Some studies on near-synonyms have concentrated on the interactive relationship between lexical semantic properties and syntactic behaviors. By observing their
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distributional syntactic patterns from the corpus data, researchers can deduce the semantic features to differentiate near-synonyms. In addition, the syntactic behaviors can also be predicted from lexical semantics. For instance, Tsai et al. (1996) discuss a pair of near-synonyms, gaoxing (高興) ‘happy’ and kuaile (快樂) ‘glad’. Two
semantic features are proposed to account for their distinct syntactic behaviors, [±change-of-state] and [±control]. The feature [±change-of-state] explains the
different aspectual types between gaoxing and kuaile. Since gaoxing refers to a result state, denoting a change of state, it can take the perfective aspect markers -le (了) and the aspectual adverbs zheng (正). However, kuaile is a homogeneous state and does not refer to any change so it can only take the aspectual adverb which indicates a permanent state buzai (不再). The following examples can illustrate the differences (Tsai et al. 1996: 172).
(1) 我們談得正 (高興+*快樂)，突然…
women tan de zheng (gaoxing+*kuaile), turan…
we talk CSC3 ASP happy glad suddenly…
‘We are talking happily, but suddenly…’
(2) 從此不再 (快樂+*高興)
congci buzai kuaile+*gaoxing since-then no-again glad happy
‘[Somebody] is no longer happy since then.’
The different sentential types contrasted by gaoxing and kuaile can be explicated by
3 Complex stative construction is short for CSC here (Li and Thompson 2008).
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the other feature [±control]. Gaoxing can form an imperative sentence as in (3), and kuaile can appear in a wish sentence as in (4). Imperative sentences represent that the
hearers have the abilities to perform the action or not so it means the state of gaoxing is controllable. As for the use of wish sentences, the control of doing something is not involved.
(3) 高興/*快樂 一點!
gaoxing/*kuaile yidian happy glad
‘Be happy!’
(4) 祝你 快樂/*高興
zhu ni kuaile/*gaoxing wish you glad happy
‘I wish you be happy.’
The feature of [±control] also allows gaoxing to co-occur with volitional verbs yinggai (應該) and yao (要) as well as evaluative verb zhide (值得).
Another study of a near synonym pair fangbian (方便) and bianli (便利) ‘to be convenient’ by Chief et al. (2000) also adopts the same approach. Semantic features are extracted from the distributional differences in syntactic patterns, and then tested in new syntactic frames. Some observed major differences are that bianli never functions as a verbal modifier which is exclusive to fangbian. Fangbian appears mostly in intransitive form, and in the transitive usage it takes a sentential or a verbal object. Moreover, fangbian can be negated by bu (不) while bianli cannot. To account
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for these distinctions Chief et al. (2000) propose the feature [beneficial role]. With the prominent feature of beneficial role, bianli cannot allow the post-verbal proposition to be inverted to the pre-verbal position as the examples of (5a) and (5b) contrast.
However, fangbian has the trivial status of beneficial role so such inversion is available as (6a) and (6b) illustrate (cited from Chief et al. 2000: 54).
(5a) 修改許多法規便利山民墾殖
xiugai xuduo fagui buanli shan-min kenzhi modify many rule convenient mountain-people cultivate
‘Modifying many rules makes it convenient for the aborigines to cultivate (land)’
(5b) *修改許多法規山民墾殖便利
xiugai xuduo fagui shan-min kenzhi bianli modify many rule mountain-people cultivate convenient (6a) 設置辦事處方便民眾出國觀光
shezhi banshichu fangbian minzhong chuguo guanguang establish office convenient people go-abroad visit
‘Establishing an office makes it convenient for people to travel abroad.’
(6b) 設置辦事處民眾出國觀光方便
shezhi banshichu minzhong chuguo guanguang fangbian establish office people go-abroad visit convenient
‘Establishing an office makes it convenient for people to travel abroad.’
Other differences can be further explicated by the notion of lexical conceptual profile. Extended from the feature [beneficial role], Chief et al. (2000) claim that bianli profiles the beneficial role but that fangbian profiles the whole propositional
event. Therefore, the lexical conceptual profile of fanbian makes it able to co-occur
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with bu (不) ‘not’ because its event can be negated like any proposition. They further point out the positive meaning denoted by the beneficial role of bianli also excludes negation (Chief et al. 2000: 55).
2.2 MARVS-based Studies
Module Attribute Representation of Verbal Semantics (MARVS) is a theory of lexical knowledge proposed by Huang et al. (2000). In terms of this model, each sense of a verb has its own event structure, and the structural and content information it conveys can be specified by the composition of modules and attributes. The two types of modules are Event Module and Role Module, and the two attributes linked to them are Event-Internal Attributes and Role-Internal Attributes, respectively. The model can be schematized as the following figure (=Huang et al. 2000: 24, Figure 1).
Figure 2.1 Module-Attribute Representation (=Huang et al. 2000: 24, Figure 1)
The Event Module represents the overall shape of the event structure and it is
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composed of five atomic event structures: Boundary, Process, Stage, State and Punctuality. The followings are their associated symbols and statements (Huang et al.
2000: 26).
(7) (Boundary)
Boundary refers to a temporal point of an event.
(8) / (Punctuality)
Punctuality represents a single occurrence of an activity that cannot be measured based on duration.
(9) ///// (Process)
Process represents an event that can keep going and has a time course.
(10) ____ (State)
State refers to a homogenous event that is neither punctual nor does it have a time course.
(11) ^^^^^ (Stage)
Stage consists of interactive sub-events.
The Event-internal Attributes linked to the module are the inherent features of the event itself, such as [control], [effect], [disposal], etc.
The other module, Role Module, represents the participant roles. It contains all required arguments and optional arguments or adjuncts. The roles include Agent, Cause, Causer, Comparison, Experiencer, Goal, Instrument, Incremental theme, Location, Locus, Manner, Ranger, Recipient, Source, Target, Theme, and so on
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(Huang et al. 2000: 31). The associated Role-Internal Attributes further specify the inherent semantic behaviors of the focused role. Some examples are [sentience], [volition], [design], etc.
Liu (2002) adopts the MARVS model to investigate Mandarin verbs of doubt, huaiyi (懷疑) and cai (猜). Huiyi can be preceded by the inception verb kaishi (開始),
marking an inchoative state in the Event Module. While cai can be followed by an endpoint marker wan (完), representing a bounded process in the Event Module. The following examples illustrate the point (Liu 2002: 6-7).
(12) 她開始懷疑/*猜果汁到底是不是純的
ta kaishi huaiyi/*cai guozhi daodi shibushi chun de she start huaiyi/*cai juice to bottom be not be pure DE
‘She started wondering if the juice was pure.’
(13) 你到底猜/*懷疑完了沒?
ni daodi cai/*huaiyi wan le mei you to bottom cai/*huaiyi finish LE no
‘Have you on earth finished guessing?’
Their distinction in the event module also implies their different participant roles.
Huaiyi takes an experiencer to be the subject, and cai takes a volitional agent in the
Role Module. Below is the schematic representation of huaiyi and cai based on MARVS model (=Liu 2002: 10, (14)).
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Table 2.1 MARVS for huiyi and cai (=Liu 2002: 10, (14))
Another study by Hsu and Chung (2012) also adopt the same approach to examine another set of near-synonyms, pao (泡) and jin (浸), verbs of soaking. With the same Role Module, their differences are identified by the Event Module in MARVS. Pao is a composite event for its inclusion of boundary, process and state.
Therefore, pao represents a dual process-state. However, jin cannot co-occur with the durative marker zai (在), and it represents an inchoative stage in the Event Module.
The following schema illustrates the differences between pao and jin based on MARVS model (=Hsu and Chung 2012: 306, (7)).
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Table 2.2 MARVS for pao and jin (=Hsu and Chung 2012: 306, (7))
2.3 Frame-based Studies
Frame Semantics, introduced by Fillmore (1977, 1982, 1992), approaches lexical meaning by centering the relations between language and human experience. The meanings of the lexicon would be retrieved only when the background information is involved and the frames are constituted by the interrelated concepts that the words encode (Fillmore 1992). Each frame contains different frame elements that constitute the conceptual frame. A classic example, the Commercial Frame Event, is made by Fillmore (1977). The Commercial Frame denotes a transaction act and the frame elements (in terms of situational roles) include the buyer, the seller, the money and the goods. The Commercial Frame is schematized as follows (=Fillmore 1977: 104, Figure 1).
Verb Event Module Role Module
Role-Internal Attributes pao dual process-state
․/////․____
<Theme, Goal>
[+hot spring]
jin inchoative state
․____ <Theme, Goal>
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Figure 2.2 The Commercial Event Frame (=Fillmore 1977: 104, Figure 1) Some related verbs linked to this frame are buy, sell, pay, send, cost and charge.
However, each verb evokes different perspectives of the frame. For example, the verb of buy puts the buyer and goods into perspective but the verb of sell perspectivizes the seller and goods (Fillmore 1977). More details will be further discussed in Chapter 3.
Liu et al. (2006) take a frame-based approach to discuss polysemous
near-synonyms, Mandarin verbs of expression, biaoshi (表示), biaoda (表達), and biaolu (表露). Biaoshi is a polysemous verb with three different senses, and each
sense belongs to different frames: the Statement frame, the Encoding frame, and the Evidence frame. With highlighting different participant roles (indicated by gray shading), the defining schemas and core frame elements are represented as follows (Liu et al. 2006: 140-141).
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Figure 2.3 Defining schema of the Statement frame (=Liu et al. 2006: 140, (4)) The core frame elements: Speaker, Message (VP or S)
Figure 2.4 Defining schema of the Encoding frame (=Liu et al. 2006: 141, (5)) The core frame elements: Speaker, Message (NP)
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Figure 2.5 Defining schema of the Evidence Frame (=Liu et al. 2006: 141, (6)) The core frame elements: Sign, Message (S or NP)
In terms of the frame membership and their syntactic behaviors from corpus data, Liu et al. (2006) further distinguish bioashi, biaoda and biaolu. The data shows that although biaoshi belongs to three frames, it is a prototypical verb of Statement (with 72.2% frequency). Similarly, biaoda is also a cross-frame verb but it is predominately used as a verb of Encoding. As for biaolu, it only functions as a verb of Encoding with no token of other frames. The following examples illustrate the points (Liu et al.
2006: 143).
(14) 不擅談論自己的何先生[Speaker]，靦腆的表示:
bu shan tanlun ziji de he xiansheng, miantian-de biaoshi:
NEG good at talk oneself NOM Her Mr. shy say 這不過是盡心盡力做好份內工作[Message]
zhe buguoshi jinxinjinli zuohao fennei gongzuo this nothing-but dedicated do-well one’s job
‘Mr. Her who is not good at talking about himself bashfully says that he does nothing but dedicated to do his own job well.
(15) 我[Speaker]今天寫這一封信[Sign]就是要表達
wo jintian xie zhe yi feng xin ju shi yao biaoda I today write this one CL letter emphatic be want to express 我衷心的感謝[Message]
wo zhongxin-de ganxie
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I sincere-GEN gratitude
‘Today I write this letter for the purpose of expressing my sincere gratitude.’
(16) 費茲瓦特並說，海珊[Speaker]迄未表露
feiziwate bing shuo, haishan qi wei biaolu Fitzwater also says, Hussein until-now not express 願與布希特使會談的意願[Message]
yuan yu buxi teshi huitan de yiyuan willing to with Bush emissary parley GEN wish
‘Fitzwater also says that until now Hussein has not yet expressed his wish to parley with Bush’s emissary.’
In the study, Liu et al. (2006) also discuss the relationship across three frames. The Encoding frame is derived metonymically from the Statement frame, and the Evidence frame is metaphorically induced from the Encoding frame.
Lin (2009) studies a pair of near-synonym of fangbian (方便) and bianli (便利)
‘to be convenient’ by taking the same frame-based approach. The study is to
re-examine the previous research by Chief et al. (2000) based on a different analysis.
Fangbian and bianli evoke two frames: the Convenience frame with the frame
elements of Agents, Means, Reason, Beneficiary, and Purpose, and the Inconvenience frame with the frame elements of Reason, Agent, Action, Maleficiary and Purpose.
Although these two frames seem to be parallel, the evaluation of intentionality makes the difference. Within the Convenience frame, fangbian and bianli take two different perspectives. Fangbian focuses on the result-subevent, and perceives the event from
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the perspective of the Beneficiary benefiting from the Purpose. As shown in (17), the result-subevent is more concerned because the Beneficiary Soochow University achieves the Purpose of participation in the game more easily, and it is regardless of the intention of the collegiate athletic association’s holding the game (Lin 2009: 24).
However, bianli focuses on the cause-subevent, and perceives the event from the perspective of the Agent’s employing the Means. Therefore, in (18) the adverb gaohao (剛好), which implies the resultant convenience is accidental, is not allowed
by bianli. On the contrary, the example of (19) is available because the Means is exercised out of the goodwill of the Agent (Lin 2009: 27).
(17) 大專 體總(Agent) 辦 七人制球賽(Means) dazhuan ti-zong ban qi-ren-zhi qiu-sai college athletic-association hold seven-man-rule ball-game 剛好 方便 東吳(Beneficiary)
ganghao fangbian dongwu accidentally FANGBIAN Soochow 組隊 參加(Purpose) zu-dui canjia
recruit-team participate
‘The collegiate athletic association is holding the seven-player rugby game, which happens to facilitate the team recruitment and participant in the game for Soochow University.’
(18) ?大專 體總(Agent) 辦 七人制球賽(Means) dazhuan ti-zong ban qi-ren-zhi qiu-sai college athletic-association hold seven-man-rule ball-game
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剛好 便利 東吳(Beneficiary) ganghao bianli dongwu
accidentally BIANLI Soochow
組隊 參加(Purpose) [constructed example]
zu-dui canjia recruit-team participate
(19) 大專 體總(Agent) 辦 七人制球賽(Means) dazhuan ti-zong ban qi-ren-zhi qiu-sai college athletic-association hold seven-man-rule ball-game 以 便利 東吳(Beneficiary)
yi fangbian dongwu to BIANLI Soochow
組隊 參加(Purpose) [constructed example]
zu-dui canjia recruit-team participate
2.4 Collocation and Semantic Prosody-based Studies
The final approach that adopts collocation and semantic prosody is best benefited by corpora work. With such large quantities of concordance data, the collocation behaviors and semantic prosody can be observed by a statistical method.
Firth (1957) first uses collocation as a technical term and applies the test of
‘collocability’ in his article Modes of Meaning. Other researchers also follow Firth’s step making similar views on collocation including Sinclair (1991), Leech (1974), and Hoey (1991) (cf. Partington 1998). While we look at these collocational patterns,
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some favorable or unfavorable connotations will arise with their habitual collocates.
This phenomenon is referred to as “semantic prosody”. Sinclair (1991) investigates examples of set in and happen to manifest semantic prosody. He points out that set in habitually co-occurs with subjects associated with unpleasant states of affairs and happen tends to occur with unpleasant things such as accident. Stubbs (1995) also
gives several corroborating examples from the LOB corpus (Stubbs 1995: 2-3).
(20) before bad weather sets in; the fact that misery can set in; desperation can set in;
stagnation seemed to have set in; before rigor mortis sets in.
(21) the fantastically dry and sunny spell that set in.
(22) the problem of what will happen; this sort of accident can still happen; need the quarrel with Cuba ever have happened; something very untoward has happened;
calm down and tell me exactly what happened.
From a cross-linguistic perspective, Xiao and McEnery (2006) explore three cases of near-synonyms: the consequence group, the cause group and the price/cost group, drawing upon data from English and their translation equivalents in Mandarin Chinese. Based on their collocational behavior and semantic prosody, the semantic relations of near-synonyms in terms of their collocational behavior and semantic prosody are investigated. Comparing two different languages, the specific characteristic of language also becomes an affective factor. For example, the morphological variations in English would affect its semantic prosody as in the patterns of consequence (consequence, consequences and consequently), as illustrated
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by the following table.
Table 2.3 Distribution of consequence across meaning categories in FLOB/Frown (= Xiao and McEnery 2006: 109, Table 2)
However, Mandarin Chinese lacks such morphological variations. Besides, although English and Mandarin Chinese are two unrelated languages, they both show a similar collocational behavior and semantic prosodies of near-synonyms. For example, in the cause group the English near-synonyms are cause, arouse, lead to, result in/from, give
rise to, and bring about. Most of the verbs show negative semantic prosodies but give
rise to shows high frequency of positive prosody. Moreover, both give rise to and
cause are significant collocates of change(s) but the collocations show different
evaluations. Change(s) collocating with bring about typically shows a favourable evaluation while the collocating with cause shows an unfavourable evaluation (Xiao and McEnery 2006: 115). The following table demonstrates the frequency of semantic prosody across the English near-synonyms of cause:
Pattern Negative Neutral Positive
as a consequence 6 7 4
in consequence (of) 8 3 1
consequence 27 7 6
consequences 85 20 1
consequent(ly) 15 73 5
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Table 2.4 Distribution of cause-words across meaning categories in English (=Xiao and McEnery 2006: 117, Table 3)
The corresponding translations of cause in Mandarin Chinese include changsheng (產 生), xingcheng (形成), zaocheng (造成), yinqi (引起), dailai (帶來), daozhi (導致), cushi (促使), zhishi (致使), yinfa (引發), cucheng (促成), and niangcheng (釀成).
From the corpus data, zhishi, niangcheng, zaocheng, yinqi, and daozhi are
overwhelmingly negative and their collocates also conform with the negative prosody such as shigu (事故), weiji (危機), chongtu (衝突) etc. Due to the strongly negative prosody of zaocheng, even an apparently neutral result may turn to negative, as the following example can inllustrate (Xiao and McEnery 2006: 119).
(23) 臥室的窗戶沒有關，薄薄的窗簾在夜風裡
woshi de chuanghu meiyou guan, bobo de chuanglian zai yefeng li bedroom GEN window not close, thin GEN curtain in night-wind in
漂漂浮浮，造成一種極具浪漫情調的，飛動的
piaopiaofufu, zaocheng yizhong ji ju langman qingdiao de, feidong de flutter-flutter, cause one-CL very have romantic appeal GEN flying GEN 印象，正像女主人喜怒無常，躁動不寧的
yinxiang, zheng xiang nuzhuren xinuwuchang, zaodong bu ning de
yinxiang, zheng xiang nuzhuren xinuwuchang, zaodong bu ning de