4. Analogy between Action Verbs and Psychological Verbs
4.4 Psychological verbs
4.4.2 Psychological verbs with duration
國
立 政 治 大 學
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N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
‘This question has bothered him for three days.’
According to the above classification, 困 擾 kun4rao3 ‘bother’ is an object-experiencer psych verb. In addition, it is also a psychological causative-transitive verb since the Theme causes a change of psychological state in the Experiencer, from not being bothered to being bothered. In other words, the Theme is the cause and the Experiencer is the affectee.
4.4.2 Psychological verbs with duration
As noted in the previous section, most psychological verbs require Experiencer and Theme as arguments. In the cases of psych verbs, the Theme represents the stimulus which causes a change in the Experiencer’s mental state. Most Experiencer-subject predicates are stative, but Stimulus-subject predicates may be stative or eventive. Jackendoff (1991) illustrated stative and eventive predicates with the following examples.
(71) a. Thunder frightens Bill. (stative) b. Harry (deliberately) frightened Bill. (eventive)
This difference between stative and eventive also exists in Mandarin psych predicates.
Liu (2010) noted in her paper that stative psych verbs can usually be modified with degree modification, such as 很 hen3 ‘very’ and 非常 fei1chang2 ‘very’. Eventive
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
psych verbs, however, cannot take the degree modifier, but they often have the perfective aspect marker 了 le5. The examples are presented by Liu as follows.
(72) a. 那位 阿婆 非常 生氣 na4wei4 a1po2 fei1chang2 sheng1qi4
That-CL old-woman very angry
‘That old woman was very angry.’
b. 這個 消息 激怒 / 惹火 / 惹惱了 他 zhe4ge5 xiao1xi2 / ji1nu4 / re3huo3 / re3nao3 le5 ta1
This-CL news irritated / infuriated / provoked-ASP him.
‘This news irritated/infuriated/provoked him.’
In (72a), the psych verb 生氣 sheng1qi4 ‘angry’ is considered as a stative psych verb and it can be preceded by the degree modifier 非常 fei1chang2 ‘very’. In (72b), the psych verbs 激怒 ji1nu4 ‘irritate’, 惹火 re3huo3 ‘infuriate’, and 惹惱 re3nao3
‘provoke’ are considered as eventive psych verbs and they can collocate with the perfective aspect marker 了 le5. Liu also noted that for stative Experiencer-subject verbs, when the subject is changed into Stimulus, Mandarin has to rely on the overtly causative construction with causative markers, such as 讓 rang4, 令 ling4, 使 shi3
‘make’, as presented in (73). For the eventive psych verbs, the default unmarked use is the transitive construction with Stimulus as the subject. The change of subject from Stimulus to Experiencer will turn the sentence into the passive construction as (74).
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This-CL matter make him very aggrieved/confused/ contented/ touched‘This matter makes him aggrieved/ confused/ contented/ touched.’
(74) a. 這本 書 激怒了 他 zhe4ben3 shu1 ji1nu4 le5 ta1
This-CL book irritate-ASP him
‘The book irritated him.’
b. 他 被 這本 書 激怒了 ta1 bei4 zhe4ben3 shu1 ji1nu4le5 He BEI this-CL book irritate-ASP ‘He was irritated by the book.’
Given the difference between stative and eventive in psych verbs, it can be found that stative psych verbs are more suitable to be collocated with duration, as presented in (75) and (76).
(75) a. 這件 事 高興了 他 一整天
zhe4jian4 shi4 gao1xing4le5 ta1 yi4zheng3tian1 This-CL matter happyASP him all-day
‘This matter made him happy for the whole day.’
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ni3de5 an1quan2 dan1xian1le5 ta1 yi2ge5 wan3shang1
Your safety worry-ASP him one-CL night
‘Your safety made him worry for the whole night.’
d. 這部 戲 感動了 他 兩 小時 zhe4bu4 xi4 gan3dong4le5 ta1 liang3 xiao3shi2 this-CL play touch him two hour ‘This play made me feel touched for two hours.’
(76) *這本 書 激怒 / 惹火 / 吸引了 我 ㄧ整天 zhe4ben3 shu1 ji1nu4 / re3huo3 / xi1yin3le5 wo3 yi4zheng3tian1
This-CL book irritate infuriate attract-ASP me all-day
‘This book irritated/infuriated/attracted me for the whole day.’
Most stative psych verbs are intransitive verbs and they can only be used in the causative pattern with causative markers, such as rang4 ‘make’ mentioned above.
However, they can be used as transitive verbs with Stimulus (Theme) as the subject and Experiencer as the object with duration as in such sentences as in (75). Eventive psych verbs, however, are not compatible with duration phrase, presented in (76), and this is because of the semantic features of eventive psych verbs. Liu (2010) stated in
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
her paper that eventive psych verbs show a higher degree of volitionality, telicity, punctuality, control, and dynamic aspectuality. Two verbs, 激怒 ji1nu 4 ‘irritate’and 吸引 xi1yin3 ‘attract’ are compared in Liu’s paper, and she considers 吸引 xi1yin3
‘attract’ as a more stative psych verb than 激怒 ji1nu 4 ‘irritate’. However, 吸引 xi1yin3 ‘attract’ still has some eventive features, so another stative psych verb 擔心
dan1xin1 ‘worry’ is added to aid in a further comparison. The examples with
illustrations are presented in (77).
(77) a. volition (with adverbial 故意 gu4yi4 ‘deliberately’) 他 故意 激怒 / ?吸引 / *擔心 我
ta1 gu4yi4 ji1nu 4 / xi1yin3 /dan1xin1 wo3
he deliberately irritate / attract/ worry me
‘He deliberately irritated/?attracted/*worried me.’
b. telicity/ boundedness (with perfective le5 and frequency liang3ci4 ‘twice’) 他 激怒 / ?吸引 / ?擔心了 我 兩次
ta1 ji1nu4 / xi1yin3 /dan1xin1le5 wo3 liang2ci4
he irritate / attract / worry-ASP me twice
‘He irritated /?attracted/ ?worried me twice’
c. punctuality (with adverb of immediacy ㄧ下子 yi2xia4zi5) 他 一下子就 激怒 / ?吸引 / *擔心了 我
ta1yi2xia4zi5 jiu4 ji1nu4 / xi1yin3 /dan1xin1le5 wo3 he one-second irritate / attract / worry-ASP me
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
‘He irritated /?attracted / *worried me in no time.’
d. control (with imperative)
別 激怒 / ?吸引 / 擔心 我 bie2 ji1nu4 / xi1yin3 /dan1xin1 wo3
don’t irritate / attract / worry me
‘Don’t irritate / ?attract / worry me.’
e. dynamic process (with progressive 在 zai4) 他 在 激怒 / *吸引 / 擔心 我
ta1 zai4 ji1nu4 / xi1yin3 /dan1xin1 wo3
he ASP irritate / attract / worry me
‘He is irritating/*attracting/worrying me.’
In Liu’s argument, 激怒 ji1nu 4 ‘irritate’ is more eventive and 吸引 xi1yin3 ‘attract’
is more stative so the subject of the psych verb 激怒 ji1nu 4 ‘irritate’ displays more proto-agent features, such as volition. The features of eventive psych verbs also explain why they are not compatible with duration phrases and this is because they display the feature of punctuality, which is an opposite concept to the concept of duration. In (77c), the eventive psych verb 激怒 ji1nu 4 ‘irritate’ can collocate with the adverb ㄧ下子 yi2xia4zi5 ‘immediately’ , but the more stative 吸引 xi1yin3
‘attract’ and 擔心 dan1xin1 ‘worry’ cannot be modified with this adverb. The eventive psych verb displays a change of mental state which happens at a punctual moment while the stative psych verbs express a mental state which will last a period
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
of time and therefore they can be modified by duration phrases.