Ⅴ. ANALYZING THE VERBS IN THREE TYPES OF V-SHANG
5.1 Verbs in V-shang Ground
5.1.2 The argument structure of V-shang Ground
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(56) 我們 現代化 應該 是 趕上 時代潮流 women xiandaihua yinggai shi gan-shang shidai-chaoliu our modernization should catch up time trend
‘Our modernization should catch up (with) the trend of the times.’
5.1.2 The argument structure of V-shang Ground
In regard to the argument structure of V-shang with Ground NP from the sentences in (55-56) above, V-shang needs a subject and an endpoint, so it essentially requires two thematic roles, Theme and Locative. A Theme role portrays the entity that is moved by the action or event denoted by the predicate. If we take pa-shang ‘climb up onto something’ 爬上 for example, the first predicate (V1) pa2 ‘climb’ 爬 originally requires two thematic roles: Theme and Location, because the subject is affected by the action pa2 ‘climb’ 爬 in sentence (57). And, it should attach to a preposition phrase dao4 ‘arrive’ 到 with a location. According to Dowty (1991), ‘Lisi’ undergoes the action only and does not change his state. Hence, ‘Lisi’ can be assigned a Theme
role.
(57) a. 李四 爬 到山上 了。
Lisi pa dao-shan-shang le Lisi climb up mountain ASP
‘Lisi climbed up onto the top of the mountain.’
b. pa2 <Theme, Locative>
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On the other hand, when we analyze the sentence in (60) with shang as its predicate, we can find that shang needs a subject as its Theme and a Locative complement as its object. ‘Johnson’ is also the same as ‘Lisi’ in (59) that both undergo the action but do
not change their state, so shang may have a Theme role in the subject position.
(58) a. 強森 上 樓 了 Johnson shang-lou le Johnson up-floor-asp
‘Johnson went up (to the next) floor.’
b. shang <Theme, Location>
When these two predicates are synthesized into a compound, their argument structure is conserved under the principle of thematic hierarchy. This phenomenon of the synthesis of V1 and shang can be explained by Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG). Based on an argument structure (a-structure) linking the lexical semantic structure and the syntactic structure of a predicator (Bresnan and Kaberva, 1989;
Bresnan and Zaenen, 1990), LFG states two planes of syntactic representation:
functional structure (f-structure) and constituent structure (c-structure) (Kaplan and Bresnan, 1982). The c-structure is represented as a tree configuration, and the f-structure is formed of grammatical information, such as grammatical features (e.g., SUBJ and OBJ). Dowty (1988) and Bresnan (2001) propose an implicational hierarchy of the subject; that is, speakers place an Agent into the subject position most
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frequently, and the second preference is the Benefactive, then Theme/Patient, and
finally Locative as in (59).
(59) Thematic hierarchy:
ag > ben > go/exp > inst > pt/th> loc
Argument functions include SUBJ, OBJ, OBLΘ (oblique function), OBJΘ (secondary objects). They are characterized by two binary distinctive features: [+r] ([+r] and [-r]
for restricted and unrestricted) and [+o] ([+o] and [-o] for objective and non objective) (Bresnan, 2001; Her, 2009). The restriction of thematic roles is distinguished by [+r], and SUBJ and OBJ are unrestricted. On the other hand, the objective functions marked by [+o] distinguish the group of OBJ and OBJΘ from the other group of SUBJ and OBLΘ. The intrinsic features of grammatical functions and the hierarchy of marked argument functions by Her (2009) are as shown in (60):
(60) Markedness hierarchy of argument functions:
SUBJ (-r -o) > OBJ (-r +o)/ OBLΘ (+r -o) > OBJΘ (+r +o)
Two other lexical mapping rules in (61) and (62) below show the universal scheme of morphosyntactic classification of argument structure roles (Bresnan and Kanerva, 1989). Further, (63) shows a unified mapping principle (UMP) (Her 1999, 2003, 2007, 2009). Her (2009) suggested that the UMP indicates elsewhere conditions under which a non-subject or a non-patient role should be assigned a restricted oblique function.
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(61) Intrinsic morphosyntactic classification of thematic roles (IC):
Θ, Θ= pt/th [-r]
(62)Default morphosyntactic classification of thematic roles (DC):
Θ, Θ≠Θ^ (theta hat) [+r]
(63)Unified Mapping Principle (UMP):
Map each role in a-structure to the highest compatible* AF available+.
*An AF is compatible if it contains no conflicting features.
+An AF is available if it is not fully specified by a role and not linked to a higher role.
In (61), patient/theme is encoded as an unrestricted function like SUBJ or OBJ.
Elsewhere condition in (62) states the generalization that a non-logical subject, and a non-patient-like role is typically assigned a thematically restricted oblique function.
And, further, a more prominent role favors a more prominent AF (Her, 2009). And well-formedness constraints, including the Subjection Condition: every predicator must have a subject, and Function-Argument Biuniqueness: Each a-structure role must be associated with a unique function, are used to ensure that every sentence has a subject and that two arguments cannot be mapped to the same grammatical function
(Bresnan 2001). In an instance from Her (2009):
(64) 張三 坐 在台上。
Zhangshan zuo zai tai-shang.
John sit on stage-top
‘John is sitting on the stage.’
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sit < x y > <x=th, y=loc>
IC: [-r]
DC: [+r]
S/O OBL/OBJΘ UMP: S OBL
In this sentence, zuo ‘sit’ requires two thematic roles defined by proto-patient entailment (Dowty, 1988). The actor of zuo undergoes the action but does not change its state, so it is a thematic role of Theme. Locative is in a group of not non-Theme/Patient and is assigned a [+r]. The next is to analyze motion verbs like fei
‘fly.’ fei requires two thematic roles. An Theme like ‘Lisi’ may appear in the subject position as in the following sentences in (65). Fei ‘fly’ 飛 has the syntactic structure
of < th, loc>.
(65) a. 李四飛 到天上 了。
Lisi fei dao-tian-shang le
‘Lisi flew (up) to the sky.’
fei < th, loc>
A verb compound is composed of two predicates. The second predicate originates from directional verbs, and V1 is the motion verb. In the interaction between grammatical relation and thematic relation, the roles are omitted in use, and the grammatical relation shifts to react to this situation. Her (2007) has proposed the
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argument structure mismatches in RVCs within the composition of the causative predicate and the resultative predicate. The first causative predicate makes RVCs express the causative or non-causative meaning, so different semantic meanings trigger different syntactic structures. The mismatching situation happens because the thematic role of V2 merges with the roles of V1 to compose a composite role (Her, 2007). No matter what the composition is manipulated, the outcome will only keep two roles mapping to the subject and object position. That is, the suppression device would absorb one of the composing roles. For a logical consequence of one-to-one mapping, Her (2007) suggests that it should be considered universally motivated and constrained by the mapping principle.
Thus, when we go back to analyzing a V-shang structure like fei-shang, the mapping process will be as in (66) below. The syntactic structure of fei-shang requires two thematic roles. A Theme is conserved in the subject position, and a Locative is
required in the object position. In the composite roles, the proper role is conserved.
(66) a. 李四/氣球 飛上 天 了。
Lisi/the ballon fei-shang-tian- le
‘Lisi/The ballon flew (up) to the sky.’
b. V1: fei <th, loc>
V2: shang <th, loc>
VV: fei-shang < th loc >
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fei-shang < x y > (x=th, y=loc) IC: [ -r ]
DC: [+r]
S/O OBL/OBJΘ UMP: S OBL
Other verbs with a vertical elevation like tai2 ‘carry’ 抬 and ban ‘move’ 搬 require three thematic roles: Agent, Theme and Locative, as in the sentence Lisi ban dong-xi dao loushang 李四搬東西到樓上 ‘Lisi has moved the things to the upper
floor.’ Sentence (67) shows that V-shang may have the syntactic structure <ag, th, loc>. Both Locative and Theme are conserved in V-shang.
(67) a. 李四 把 東西 搬 上 樓 了 Lisi ba dong-xi ban-shang-lou le Lisi ba things move-up-floor-asp
‘Lisi has moved the things to the upper floor.’
b. V1: ban <ag, th, loc>
V2: shang <ag/th, loc>
VV: ban-shang <ag, th, loc>
However, if three roles seek to co-occur in the sentence, it has to be in a ba-construction. Without a ba construction, there are only two roles in a V-shang sentence, such as <ag, th>, <ag, loc> and <th, loc> . In V-shang with Ground, the
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locative role takes priority in the selection of the structure, so the structure of <ag, th>
in ban-shang yixiangpijiou ‘move up a box of beer’搬上一箱啤酒 will be included in the second category of V-shang with Patient.
Another two examples are shown below. The answer in the conversation (68) shows the syntactic structure of <ag, loc> required by V-shang, and the Theme role is omitted. This type of structure only occurs in the dialogue, so the category of V-shang Ground would only include the second type of aregument structure < th, loc > in (69).
(68) A: 東西呢 dong-xi ne?
things ne?
‘Where are the things?’
B: 李四搬上樓了 Lisi ban-shang-lou le Lisi move-up-floor-asp
‘Lisi has moved the things to the upper floor.’
The sentence (69) shows that Theme and Locative role are conserved. An Agent role
is omitted, so V-shang affords two thematic roles <th, loc>.
(69) 東西 搬 上 樓 了 dong-xi ban-shang-lou le things move-up-floor-asp
‘(Someone) moved the things to the upper floor.’
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As a result, V-shang with Ground can demonstrate an argument structure: <th, loc>. Shang is assigned the structure of <th, loc>. When V1 requiring three thematic
roles is compounded with shang, V-shang needs three roles. However, only <th, loc>
is collected in this category. When V1 requiring two thematic roles is synthesized with shang, V-shang also shows the structure of <th, loc>.
5.2 Verb types in V-shang Patient
5.2.1 Verb types in V-shang Patient
In the corpus, we find that the number of instances of V-shang with Patient NP has more than other two categories. Only transitive verbs can be assigned in the V1 position, because V-shang requires a Patient complement under the proto-patient entailments of Dowty (1988): change of state, incremental theme, casually affected, stationary relative to another participant and existence not independent of the event.
The patterns of V-shang with Patient contain [+path] feature and [-path] feature as in Appendix A (Part II). In the group of [+Path], the verb types of V1 attaching to shang comprise two groups: one group contains only two thematic roles in (70a), and the other group needs three thematic roles in the action frame in (70b).
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(70) a. 牆 上 刷上 白粉 Qiang shang shua-shang baifen Wall paint on white ‘(someone) paint the wall white.’
b. 李四 在屋頂上 綁上 竹籠。
Lisi zai-wuding-shang bang shang zhulong Lisi on roof tie basket ‘Lisi tied the basket onto the roof.’
The verbs requiring three thematic roles have the meaning of ‘taking/adding (Patient/Theme) to (location).’ The Location (concrete) or Goal (abstract) is the same as the Ground, so speakers can choose a Theme or a Ground to map to the object position; that is, verbs requiring three thematic roles may appear in [V-shang Patient]
or in [V-shang Ground]. For example, as we have mentioned above, ban ‘move’ in the sentence of Lisi ban dong-xi dao loushang 李四搬東西到樓上 ‘Lisi has moved the things to the upper floor’ can show this character. The sentence can also be Lisi ban-shang lou ‘Lisi has moved to the upper floor’ or Lisi ban- shang dong-xi ‘Lisi has
moved the things.’ Another example in (71) shows that the mountain is Ground in
(71a) and that the package is Patient in (71b).
(71) a. 揹上 山 bei-shang shan put on mountain
‘carry the pack up the mountain’
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In regard to [-Path] verbs, the examples of ‘presenting X to Goal’ are verbs showing the psychological orientation in mind in (72). An Agent gives the object to people with a higher social status. Shang is used to highlight this meaning rather than xia ‘down.’ The verbs with the meaning of ‘operating X’ are in (73).
(72) a. 主動 報上 服務名稱
‘Ten years ago, I was able to profer an allowance to my parents.’
(73) a. 突然 關上 了 房門。
turan guan-shang le fangmen suddenly close ASP door
‘He suddenly closed the door.’
b. 大師 說完， 閉上 眼睛 dashi shuowan, bi-shang yanjing master finish talking close eyes
‘After finishing talking, the master closed his eyes.’
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c. 每晚 就寢前 會 鎖上 帆腳索 meiwan jiuqin-qian hui suo-shang fanjiaosuo every night before go to bed will lock bow line
‘Every night before going to bed, he locks the bow line.’
And verbs with the meaning of ‘connecting X’ are in (74). In [V-shang Ground], there are two kinds of verbs which cannot be used: stative verbs and disyllable verbs.
However, disyllabic verbs, like those in (74b), can be used in the structure.
(74) a. 經 申請 後， 即可 連上 網際網路 jing shenqing hou, jike lian-shang wangjiwanglu through apply after can connect internet
‘After applying, we can connect to the internet.’
b. 最後 聯絡上 台北 的 巨獅創意科技 zuihou lianluo-shang Taipei de jushi-chuangyi-keji
finally connect Taipei jushi technology company
‘Finally, we were able to establish contact with the Taipei Jushi Technology Company.’
Activity verbs and stative verbs can both appear in the group of [-Path], such as peng-shang ‘run into’ in (75a) and xihuan-shang ‘like’ in (75b). However, in V-shang
with Ground, stative verbs cannot function as V1.
(75) a. 這把年紀 也 會 碰上 感情困擾 zhebanianji ye hui peng-shang ganqing-kunrao this age also can run into love problems
‘At this age, we can still run into love problems.’
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b. 喜歡上 網際網路 xihuan-shang wangjiwanglu like internet
‘(Someone) like(s) the internet.’
Also, sense verbs in stative verbs, as in (76), can be used with shang, and the actor becomes the Experiencer. Therefore, the constraint in [V-shang Patient] becomes
more flexible than the constraint in [V-shang Ground].
(76) 他的眼睛 盯上 了 兩個 龐然大物 Ta-de-yanjing ding-shang le liangge pangrandawu his eyes stare at ASP two huge things
‘He stared at two huge things.’
5.2.2 The argument structure of V-shang Patient
A Patient role portrays the ‘undergoer’ of the action or event denoted by the predicate.When the NP complement is Patient rather than Locative as the thematic role of V-shang, the phrase presents the resultative meaning. If shang is omitted in the sentence, it is still a grammatical sentence. In the sentence in (77), dai4 ‘put on’ 戴 as
a verb requires two thematic roles: Agent and Patient.
(77) a. 李四 戴 帽子 了。
Lisi dai maozi le Lisi put on cap ASP
‘Lisi put on the cap.’
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b. tai < x y > (x= ag, y=pt) IC: [-r]
DC:
S/O/… S/O UMP: S O
Here is the test that the argument structure of shang remains <th, loc>, because the subject would be a Theme which undergoes the action with no change of state. As a proto-patient, the incremental theme, is assigned [-r] in IC, and the Agent is unmarked.
On the basis of the UMP, the Agent is mapped to the subject, and the Theme to the
object. The suppression device based on LMT is conducted in (78).
(78) 李四 戴 上 帽子 了。
Lisi dai shang maozi le Lisi put on cap ASP
‘Lisi put on the cap.’
V1: dai <ag, pt>
V2: shang <th, loc>
VV: dai-shang < x y > (x= ag, y=pt) IC: [-r]
DC:
S/O/… S/O UMP: S O
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The argument structure <ag, loc> makes an ungrammatical sentence; for example,
*Lisi dai shang luo ‘Lisi put on (the hat) and go upstairs’ *李四戴上樓了. However, if we change dai4 ‘put on’ 戴 to dai4 ‘carry’ 帶, it will be a grammatical sentence, because dai4 ‘carry’ 帶 requires three thematic roles <ag, th, loc>. Dai4 ‘carry’ 帶 is the same as tui ‘push’ 推. As mentioned in 5.1, these kinds of verbs belong to V-shang with Ground or V-shang with Patient. However, dai4 ‘put on’ 戴 only requires two thematic roles, so only <ag, pt> is the best result.
In the category of V-shang with Patient, the subject position needs an actor to finish the behavior, so an Agent role can be mapped to the subject position. For the object position, the Patient role is the ‘undergoer’ of the action denoted by the V-shang. Patient is attributed from V1.
The above sentence (78) can express the accomplishment of the action, and it also can indicate that the ‘hat’ has been put on the head. V-shang with Patient conducts the resultative meaning, which is similar to the sense in RVCs. In an RVC, there is a group of compounds which need the combination between the two thematic roles from V1 and Theme from V2. For example, examples of V2 in RVCs are hao3
‘finished’好, jian4 ‘see’見, zhe 著, tiao4 ‘drop’掉, zhu4 ‘live’住, and dong4 ‘move’動 (Wang, 1995). Especially, hao3 ‘finished’好 can take the place of shang, and a possible pair is shown in (79) in which (79a) and (79b) express the same sense.
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(79) a.李四 穿 上 衣服 了。
Lisi chuan-shang-yifu -le Lisi wear-up-clothes-asp ‘Lisi put on the clothes.’
b.李四 穿 好 衣服 了。
Lisi chuan-hao-yifu -le Lisi wear-well-clothes-asp ‘Lisi put on the clothes.’
5.3 Verb types in V-shang Extent
5.3.1 Verb types in V-shang Extent
There seems to be no restriction on the types of verb which may fill in V1 of V-shang with Extent, such as time phrase yitian ‘a day’ 一天 or frequency phrase liangquan ‘two circle’ 一圈. Stative verbs are seldom used in this pattern, even
though grammatical sentences, such as the sentence of ta xihuan zhegeren xihuan-shang yinien le ‘He likes this person for a year’ 他喜歡這個人喜歡上一年了
can be made. The physical motion verb, pao3 ‘run’, is usually used in V-shang with Extent like the example in (80a). Some activity verbs like baoyuan ‘complain’ in (80b) can also attach to Extent. That V-shang replaces a location with an Extent complement indicates the time spent in the performance of the action of V1.
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ta pao-shang yitian/ liangquan he run a day/ two circle‘He ran all day/ two laps.’
b. 這件事 張三 抱怨 上 一年 了 Zhejianshi zhangsan baoyuan- shang -yi-nian le This thing zhangsan complain - one year ASP
‘Zhangsan has complained of this thing for one year.’
Some special verbs used in this category are the consuming verbs, such as hua ‘spend’
花 and fei4 ‘spend’ 費 in (81). The quantity of time points out the period of the
consumed time. The time spent on performing the action does not indicate the action of V1 but other predicates like (81a); the women spent several hours on working.
(81) a. 有些女人 會 花上 幾個小時 一起 工作 youxie-nuren hui hua-shang jige-xiaoshi yiqi gongzuo some women will spend several hours together work
‘Some women spent several hours working together.’
b. 形成 往往 要 費上 好幾年 的 時間
b. 形成 往往 要 費上 好幾年 的 時間