Chapter 5 Analysis
5.1 Conceptual Schema of the Prototype of Tuī and Lā
Based on Huang, Li and Li (2006), the human kind seems to have an innate ability for categorization; for instance, our brain divides the world into two primary types of entities:
things that exist and situations that take place. Moreover, according to Rosch (1978:36), prototypes can be defined as the ‘clearest cases of category membership defined operationally
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by people’s judgments of goodness of membership in the category.’ Thus, a prototype of a category is then viewed as a salient exemplar of the overall categories. With the light of Prototype Theory, let’s move on to observe the prototype of Mandarin tuī推 ‘push’ and lā拉
‘pull.’
As mentioned in Chapter 4, the most frequently occurring syntactic pattern in the events of tuī 推 ‘push’ and lā 拉 ‘pull’ is the form [NP1 V NP2 PP (VP)] which fulfills the prototypical caused-motion construction proposed by Goldberg (1995) with the involvement of three arguments—Subject NP, Object NP, and Oblique PP. With further consideration of Li’s (2007) caused-motion concept where an Agent exerting an external force/cause and thus causing a translocational movement of the affected object (Theme/Patient), tuī 推 ‘push’ and lā 拉 ‘pull’ also posit similar semantic properties. Syntactically, NP1 is the external argument of tuī 推 ‘push’ and lā 拉 ‘pull’ (the Subject of the main predicate), NP2 is the internal argument (the Direct Object), and PP is a directional phrase designating the path of motion.
Semantically, NP1 plays the role of an Agent, NP2 as the affected object which we called the
Moved Entity, and PP acts as the delimiting Endpoint of a Location as the following
examples illustrate (repeated from (16)):(37) Caused-motion Pattern: NP1<V<NP2<Coverb{到/至/入/往/上/下/進/出/回/來/去}+NP3 (a) [我/Agent][氣憤地/Manner]推/拉[一輛腳踏車/Moved Entity][到屋裡/Location]。
wǒ qìfèndì tuī/lā yí-liàng jiǎo-tà-chē dào wūlǐ I ADJ push/pull one bicycle arrive home-in
‘I angrily pushed/pulled a bicycle into the house.’
(b) [我/Agent]推/拉[妹妹/Moved Entity][進房間/Location]。
wǒ tuī/lā mèimei jìn fángjiān
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I push/pull sister enter room ‘I pushed/pulled my sister into the room.’
With the above thread of thinking, we can thus categorize tuī 推 ‘push’ and lā 拉 ‘pull’
as prototypical caused-motion verbs with the involvement of at least three major participant roles: Agent, Moved Entity, and Location constructed under the caused-motion construction of the form [NP1 V NP2 PP (Coverb+NP3)23] with the conceptualization of someone exerting a certain driving force onto an affected object and thus causing a certain contact on the affected object to result at a certain destination. The conceptual schema of the prototype of tuī 推 ‘push’ and lā 拉 ‘pull’ can thus be presented in the following sections along with the involved syntactic patterns and core semantic components.
5.1.1 The Prototype of Tuī
As mentioned above, Mandarin tuī 推 ‘push’ can extend up to six sense-specific metaphorical extensions. Regarding to all the metaphorical extensions of tuī 推 ‘push,’ we propose that the most core sense of tuī 推 ‘push’ is equivalent to the English verb push. In the events of tuī 推 ‘push,’ three participants are usually involved within the conceptual basis:
a pushing entity playing the role of an Agent (Causer) and a pushed entity as a Moved Entity (Causee) that ended up at a pushed destination as Location (Goal). Moreover, according to FrameNet, the verb push is labeled under the Caused_Motion frame with the notion of an Agent causing a Theme (Moved Entity) to undergo translational motion whereby an Agent
23 As mentioned previously, in the syntactic form of [NP1 V NP2 PP (Coverb+Loc-NP)] the PPs in Chinese are usually expressed by non-predicate Path-verbs, which we called coverbs plus Loc-NPs as in wǒ tuī/lā yí liàng jiǎo tà chē dào wūlǐ 我推/拉一輛腳踏車到屋裡 ‘I pushed/pulled a bicycle into the house’ where dào 到
‘arrive’ acts as the coverb plus the Loc-NP of wūlǐ 屋裡 ‘the house.’
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exerts force on someone or something (Moved Entity) in order to move them away from oneself (Agent) as already demonstrated in (37) above.
With this definition in mind, we can then conceptualize an image schema for the prototypical sense of Mandarin tuī 推 ‘push,’ which is therefore, a causal event that is undergone in a physical spatial domain:
Figure 11: The prototypical sense schema of Mandarin tuī
In the above schema, the arrows signal the directionality of a causal movement whereby an Agent exerts a driving force onto a Moved Entity (shown by the bold arrow) causing the Moved Entity to undergo a locational change from the source of physical force to the target
Location
24along a physical path through a period of time by means of asymmetrical
unidirectional energy transfer (shown by the dotted arrows). Specifically, the Agent, volitionally and directly, manipulates an INSTRUMENT ((e.g., hand(s)) although not always expressed) in order to exert force onto the Moved Entity so that it subsequently moves according to the direction it was being forced.
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5.1.2 The Prototype of Lā
Lā 拉 ‘pull’ in Mandarin, as mentioned before, posits at least three sense-specific metaphorical extensions. With the three extended senses of lā 拉 ‘pull,’ we propose that the most prototypical sense is translated as pull in English. In the same vein of tuī 推 ‘push,’ lā 拉 ‘pull’ may also involve three participants: a pulling entity playing the role of an Agent (Causer) and a pulled entity as a Moved Entity (Causee) that ended up at a pulled destination as Location (Goal). According to FrameNet, the verb pull is labeled under the Caused_Motion frame with the notion of an Agent causing a Theme (Moved Entity) to undergo a translational motion whereby an Agent exerts force on someone or something (Moved Entity) in order to move them towards oneself (Agent) or away from the origin of the force as already demonstrated in (37) above.
Following the above notion, the conceptualized image schema for the prototypical sense of Mandarin lā 拉 ‘pull’ may be presented below which is also a causal event that is undergone in a physical spatial domain:
Figure 12: The prototypical sense schema of Mandarin lā
SYN: [NP1 拉 NP2 Coverb NP3]
SPATIAL
CAUSER/GOAL CAUSEE SOURCE
path path
force
Moved Entity Agent
Loc
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In the above schema, the arrows signal the directionality of a causal movement whereby an Agent exerts a driving force onto a Moved Entity (shown by the bold arrow) causing the Moved Entity to undergo a locational change towards the Agent (shown by the dotted arrow) and moving away from its original source (Location). The Agent is thus conceptually conceived as the Goal and the Loc-NP as the original Source of the Moved Entity’s movement.
Specifically, the Agent, volitionally and directly manipulates an INSTRUMENT ((e.g., finger(s)) although not always expressed) in order to exert force onto the Moved Entity so that it subsequently moves toward the force-initiator (Agent)25.
5.1.3 The Semantic and Syntactic Attributes of Prototype Tuī and Lā
Based on the above schemas along with the representative examples in (37), it is observed that the Agent (Causer) occurs in the subject position and is profiled as the primary prominent semantic element of an interactional causal event. The Agents (Causers) in (37) are core frame elements and are ususally animate human entities, thus indicating that they must occur volitionally in order to exert physical force onto another physical concrete entity to cause the Moved Entity to move towards or away from the Agent.
The Moved Entity is profiled as the second prominent semantic role in a causal event, occupying as the direct object position and acting as the affected object. Moved Entities are usually physical concrete objects that are able to undergo a locational change. These direct objects play the role of a Manipulated_Moved Entity,26 since it undergoes an exertion from the force initiator (Agent) who causes locational changes of the Moved Entity over a certain
25 Note that the Agent’s body parts (e.g., hand(s)), in the causal events of lā 拉 ‘pull,’ function as an INSTRUMENT for grasping and pulling the Moved Entity.
26 The term “Manipulation” is adopted from FrameNet in the sense that Agents occurring in this frame causes or influences the Moved Entity through some kind of force exertion.
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period of time.
The Location is the third semantic role in the events of tuī 推 ‘push’ and lā 拉 ‘pull’
occupying the PP position and acts as the Goal of the Moved Entity’s movement for tuī 推
‘push’ and as the Source of the Moved Entity’s movement for lā 拉 ‘pull.’ The Location in a prototypical caused-motion event would typically take a spatial destination/location such as dào wūlǐ (37a) and jìn fángjiān (37b).