NP Extent

國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

62

Some adverbs, such as yi3jing ‘already’ 已經 and zheng3zheng3 ‘totally’整整 shown in (47), may be put in front of [V-shang Time] to highlight the total time spent.

Thus, the semantic meaning demonstrates the resultative meaning in showing the

completed event from V1.

(47) 整整 喜歡上 一年 zhengzheng xihuan-shang yinian totally like one year ‘He has liked her for a whole year.’

4.4.1 NP Extent

According to Dowty (1991) and Her (2009), quantifiers can be represented by a thematic role ‘Extent’ coined by Dowty and Her. Extent has been categorized into quality extent and quantity extent (Halliday 1967, Teng 1985). As a semantic role,

‘Extent’ is also referred to as ‘Range’ by Halliday (1964) and Teng (1975) or as

‘Domain’ by Huang (1993). As a thematic role, Extent functions as a measure element of verbs (Dowty, 1991). For instance, ‘five pounds’ in the sentence of ‘this item weighs five pounds’ is not an adjunct, because if the noun phrase is omitted, the sentence will become ungrammatical.

For the rank of the thematic roles, Extent is on the same level as Location, which is the least prominent role in the thematic hierarchy (Huang, 1993) in (48). However,

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

the noun phrases of location and extent are directly dominated by V-shang, so the role of the object as extent should be inserted.

(48) Revised thematic hierarchy:

ag > ben > go/exp > inst > pt/th> loc/ext

Extent has different features from Patient and Theme. Extent has a general interpretation, but Patient has a specific interpretation. In addition, Extent is the effect of the verbal process, but Patient is the object which undergoes the process or event.

Theme refers to a concrete object, while Extent can be a measure amount (Xie, 2010).

In regard to the general types of Extent, they can be categorized into quantity extent and quality extent. Quality extent specifies the verb, while quantity extent adds specification with measure elements (Halliday, 1967).

(49) a. He played tennis.

b. He played five games.

The Extent ‘tennis’ in (49a) is a quality extent due to the specification of the extension of the verbal process. The Extent ‘five games’ in (49b) is a quantity extent since it specifies the scope of the process with a measure element.

According to Jackson (1990), duration can be qualified as one kind of Extent.

Jackson stated that the circumstantial role, which provides the setting of a proposition, often concerns place or time. Extent shows the features of a circumstantial role,

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

64

whose reference does not really participate in the verbal process but rather forms part of the setting for the verb. There are three kinds of circumstances of time: position, frequency, and duration. Duration concerns the measurement of time. The following sentences are presented as examples of duration. ‘Three days’ in (50a) indicates the period of time. (50b) is about the beginning of the period, and (50c) is the ending of the period.

(50) a. He was ill for three days.

b. Julian had acted very strangely since the tragedy.

c. It would probably last until the evening.

V-shang needs a range of quantities in V-shang Extent. Extent possibly includes frequency, such as yi-hsuan ‘a circle’ 一圈 and yi-bian ‘once’ 一遍, and a time phrase as duration, such as yi-nian ‘a year’ 一年 and liang-xiao-shi ‘two hours’ 兩 小時.For quantity Extent, there are phrases of duration time and numeral quantifiers.

Time NP indicates the whole of the time spent on the action of V1; that is, it indicates the resultative time consumed by the action. It shows the grammaticalizational pattern from the meaning of space and of time, and it is a metaphorical usage (Lakoff &

Johnson, 2003).

Quantifiers also attach to V-shang. In previous studies, V-shang with quantifiers is regarded as the pragmatic use, the beginning of the state or even the result. However,

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

in fact, quantifiers used with V-shang indicate the spending of the time required for the action, because the action which is quantified by frequentcy phrases is equal to the time that a person has to spend when performing it. V-shang with Extent shows frequency of action which is equal to the period of time. That is to say, the usage of frequency phrases in quantifiers is another important issue in (51). They would show the frequency of the action rather than mark the actual time of doing the action, but

the quantity of the action is equal to the consuming time.

(51) a. 在 中日職棒對抗賽 的 功勞簿上 記上 一筆。

zai zhongri-zhibang-duikangsai de gonglaobu-shang ji-shang yibi on Chinese-Japan baseball contest merits on record one ‘Record one merit from the baseball contest between Chinese and Japan.’

b. 林聖偉 上前 補上 一腳 linshengwei shang-qian bu-shang yijiao Lin go forward add a kick ‘Lin Shengwei kicked a person.’

c. 讓 我 再 見上 一眼 rang wo zai jian-shang yiyan let me again take a look

‘Let me take a look again.’

d. 以色列 湊上 一腳 Israel cou-shang yijiao Israel join a feet ‘Israel joined the organization.’

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

66

Shang also can be omitted in the structure, but V-shang with Extent signals the

resultative time of an action. Generally, [V-shang Patient] highlights the resultative state after an action, and [V-shang Extent] marks the time. The former emphasizes the new state, while the latter emphasizes the old information.