Chapter 2 Literature Review
3.3 The Methodology
To capture and analyze the interaction between syntactic behaviors and semantics properties of Mandarin emotion verbs, four steps are followed.
Step 1: Finding the Mandarin emotion verbs
We made reference to the English database FrameN et to find the emotion-relevant frames and lexical items included in these frames. Based on the lexical items in FrameNet, equivalent Mandarin lemma s were obtained through Sinica BOW and Dr.
Eye. The linguistics intuition then helped to sieve out the unrelated words from the equivalent lemma, and to add some related but neglected lexicons. During the analysis, some emotion verbs which were not found in this step would be put into examination as well.
Step 2: Collecting the corpus data
After determining the lemmas, we searched and collected sentences with targeted emotion predicates in Sinica Corpus and Chinese Word Sketch. Linguistics intuition also did help in this step. Additionally, the search engine Google was used sometimes to prove or verify the intuition.
Step 3: Observing and examining the data
To examine explicitly the syntactic presentations and semantic features of emotion verbs, we observed the verbs particularly in their 1) grammatical function, 2) syntactic categories, 3) frame elements (participant roles of an event), 4) syntactic patterns or structures, and 5) grammatical collocations.
Step 4: Analyzing and categorizing the emotion verbs based on examination
Finally, the previous findings, i.e. the unique frame elements, syntactic patterns and functions of observed verbs, were treated as criteria to analyze and categorize emotion verbs into separated class or groups.
Chapter 4 Findings
This chapter aims to present and describe some findings obtained during corpu s observation. Both syntactic and semantic representations of Mandarin emotion verbs will be delineated, including 1) event types, 2) transitivity, 3) alternations, 4) subject roles, 5) participant roles and 6) syntactic patterns of the verbs with the part icipant roles.
The six findings will be introduced respectively in Section 4.1 to Section 4.6. A summary of this chapter will be given in Section 4.7. Based on all the findings, the Mandarin emotion verbs can be further analyzed and categorized into different levels and frames (See Chapter 5).
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.
4.2 Transitivity
As to verbs, transitivity i s always mentioned because a simple verb is either transitive or intransitive. The syntactic definition of transitivity is, “Verbs that have a direct object will be considered transitive; verbs that don ’t have a direct object will be considered intransitive.” (GivÓn 1993a: 100) In this study, the transitivity is also focused and treated as a clue for classification of Mandarin emotion verbs. Following examples will document the transitivity of emotion verbs.
(24) Transitive
a. 姐姐喜歡班上一個男生。
jiejie xihuan banshang yege nansheng older sister like in class one -CL boy
‘My older sister likes a boy in her class. ’
*姐姐喜歡。
Jiejie xihuan older sister like
‘My older sister likes.’
b. 很多學生討厭英文。
henduo xuesheng taoyan yingwen many students dislike English
‘Many students dislike English.’
*很多學生討厭。
henduo xuesheng taoyan many students dislike
‘Many students dislike. ’
c. 他嫉妒妻子。
ta jidu qizi he jealous of wife
‘He is jealous of his wife. ’
*他嫉妒。
ta jidu he jealous of
‘He is jealous of.’
d. 他們擔心那女孩的安危。
tamen danxin na nuhai de anwei they worry that girl DE safety
‘They worried about that girl ’s safety.’
*他們擔心。
tamen danxin they worry
‘They worried.’
(25) Intransitive
a. 聽到這件事，爸爸非常高興。
tingdao zhejian shi, baba feichang gaoxing hear-arrive this-CL affair, father very glad
‘On hearing this affair, Father is very glad. ’
*爸爸非常高興這件事。
tingdao zhejian, baba feichang gaoing zhejian shi hear-arrive this-CL affair, father very glad this-CL affair
‘On hearing this affair, Father is very glad at this affair. ’
b. 我並不覺得驚訝。
wo bingbu juede ijngya I not feel surprised
‘I didn’t feel surprised.’
*我並不覺得驚訝這個消息。
wo bingbu juede ijngya
I not feel surprised this-CL news
‘I didn’t feel surprised at this news. ’
c. 他感覺非常後悔。
ta ganjue feichang houhui he feel very regret
‘He felt very regret.’
*他感覺非常後悔自己。
ta ganjue feichang houhui ziji he feel very regret himself
‘He felt very regret for himself. ’
Examples in (24) and (25) above distinctly illustrate the phenomenon that some verbs are obligated to take a direct object while others are not. Specifically speaking, in terms of the two arguments, Experiencer and Target, both two arguments of verbs 喜歡 xihuan ‘like’, 討厭 taoyan ‘detest’, 嫉妒 jidu ‘jealous’, 擔心 danxin ‘worry’ are profiled and appear obligatorily; however, only one argument (Experiencer) of verbs 高
興 gaoxing ‘be glad’, 驚訝 jingya ‘surprise’, 後悔 houhui ‘regret’ is profiled while the other (target) may be shaded. In this study, the transitivity of emotion verbs will be included as a criterion for verb classification.
4.3 Alternations
Levin (1985b, 1993:2-3) stated that native speakers are able to make subtle judgments which involve the occurrence of verbs with possible combinations of arguments and adjunct in various syntactic patterns and know which diathesis alternations verbs may participate in. Liu and Hong (2008) and Liu (2009) both mentioned that constructional alternation signals semanti c distinctions in emotion verbs and proposed that there are two alternation patterns that involve Mandarin emotion verbs: the stative-causative and active-passive alternations.
4.3.1 Stative-Causative alternation
Emotion verbs, such as 生氣 shengqi ‘angry’, 高興 gaoxing ‘glad’, 驚訝 jingya
‘surprise’, 失望 shiwang ‘disappointed’, 難過 nanguo ‘sad’, 擔心 danxin ‘worry’, 後 悔 houhui ‘regret’, 懊惱 aonao ‘remorseful’, 羨慕 xianmu ‘envy’, 嫉妒 jidu ‘jealous’, 滿意 manyi‘pleased’, 不滿 buman ‘unpleased, 討厭 taoyan ‘dislike’, 喜歡 xihuan
‘like’ 擔 心 danxin ‘worry’, 害 怕 haipa ‘fear’, 在 乎 zaihu ‘care’, 關 心 guanxin
‘concern’, 有 趣 youqu ‘interesting’, 無 趣 wuqu ‘boring’, and 有 意 思 youyisi
‘interesting’ express their arguments normally in a stative way, as patterns below illustrate:
(26) a. 聽到這件事，爸爸非常高興。
tingdao zhejian shi, papa feichang gaoxing hear-arrive this-CL affair, father very glad
‘On hearing this affair, Father is very glad. ’ b. 我很擔心你。
wo hen danxin ni I very worry you
‘I worry about you very much. ’ c. 這件事很有趣。
zhejian shi hen youqu this-CL very interesting
‘This affair is very interesting. ’
The verbs or predicates above can also express their arguments in a causative way, i.e.
the events of the verbs can also be expressed in a causative pattern with marker ling 令, rang 讓, shi 使 or jiao 教 ‘make’7.
(27) a. 這件事讓爸爸非常高興。
zhejian shi rang baba feichang gaoxing this-CL affair make father very glad
‘This affair makes Father feel very glad. ’ b. 你讓我很擔心。
ni reng wo hen danxin you make I very worry
‘You make me feel very worry. ’
7 Love-hate type verbs such as 愛 ai ‘love’, 喜歡 xihuan ‘like’, 討厭 taoyan ‘dislike’, and 恨 hen
‘hate’ seems to be compatible with both causative marker 讓 and passive marker 被：
他被我愛/喜歡/討厭/恨。
他讓我(很)愛/喜歡/討厭/恨。
c. 這件事讓我覺得很有趣。
zhejian shi reng we juede hen youqu this-CL make me feel very interesting
‘This affair make me feel very interesting. ’
Example (26) and (27) illustrate the stative-causative alternation that a group of Mandarin emotion verbs may particip ant in to express events in different ways.
4.3.2 Active-Passive alternation
Differing from verbs mentioned in section 4.3.1, another group of verbs show an Active-Passive alternation. Verbs in this group includes 安慰 anwei ‘comfort’, 鼓勵 guli
‘encourage’, 折磨 zhemo ‘torment’, 打擾 darao ‘disturb’, 激怒 jinu ‘anger’, 惹惱 renao ‘anger’, 嚇 xia ‘frighten’, 刺激 ciji ‘stimulate’, 誘惑 youhuo ‘seduce’, 引誘 yinyou ‘seduce’ and 吸引 xiyin ‘attract’. These verbs are regularly expressed in an active pattern, as examples below:
(28) a. 小明老是激怒莉莉。
xiaoming laoshi jinu lili Ming always anger Lili
‘Ming always angers Lili. ’ b. 這玩具很吸引小朋友。
zhe wanju hen xiyin xiaopengyou this toy very attract children
‘This toy attracts children very much. ’
Similar to English, the verbs can also occur in a passive pattern with a marker 被 bei
‘by’ :
(29) a. 莉莉老是被小明激怒。
lili laoshi bei xiaoming jinu Lili always by Ming anger
‘Lili is always angered by Ming. ’ b. 小朋友被這玩具吸引。
xiaopengyou bei zhe wanju xiyin children by this toy attract
‘Children are attracted by this toy.’
Example (28) and (29) illustrate how the Active-Passive alternation is used to help expressing an event in different way s. Moreover, all the examples from ( 26) to (29) document that not all Mandarin emotion verbs involve in the same alternation. S ome verbs may participate in Stative -Causative alternation while others may participate in Active-Passive alternation. The diversity of alternations shows how the emotional events are conceptualized in our mind. More specifically, the two alternations illustrate two perspectives on viewing emotion al events. It will be shown through the conceptual schema proposed in Chapter 5.
4.4 Subject Roles
The participants in events must occupy one of grammatical roles in the clause, and among these grammatical roles, the subject is the primary topic in a sentence. Therefore we focus on the subject and find that the roles of the subject in emotional event structures are varied.
(30) a. 聽到這件事，爸爸非常高興。
tingdao zhejian shi, papa feichang gaoxing hear-arrive this-CL affair, father very glad
‘On hearing this affair, Father is very glad. ’ b. 很多學生討厭英文。
henduo xuesheng taoyan yingwen many students dislike English
‘Many students dislike English. ’
(31) a. 這本書很有趣。
zheben shu hen youqu this-CL book interesting
‘This book is very interesting. ’ b. 他很無聊8。
ta hen wuliao he very boring
‘He is very boring.’
(32) a. 他激怒了老師。
ta jinu le laoshi he anger PERF teacher
‘He angered the teacher. ’ b. 這玩具吸引了小朋友。
zhe wanju xiyin le xiaopengyou
8 There are two readings of the sentence 他很無聊 Ta hen wuliao: ‘He is very bored.’ and ‘He is very boring.’ There is an Experiencer as the subject in the former reading, and a Stimulus as the subject in the latter one. They are analyzed in different frames.
this toy attract PERF children
‘This toy attracted children. ’
Verbs in (30) , are encoded as predicates with Experiencer (爸爸 baba ‘father’ and 學生 xuesheng ‘student’ ) as subject to profile an experiencer in an emotional state.
Verbs in (30) , are encoded as predicates with Experiencer (爸爸 baba ‘father’ and 學生 xuesheng ‘student’ ) as subject to profile an experiencer in an emotional state.