• 沒有找到結果。

The semantic account: ge denotes the minimal part of the scale

THE PROPOSAL FOR GE AND ITS INTERPRETATION

II. V ge AP such as chi ge guoyin 'eat to satisfaction'

4.4. The semantic interpretation of ge

4.4.2 The semantic account: ge denotes the minimal part of the scale

4.4.2 The semantic account: ge denotes the minimal part of the scale

The DQ ge selects an argument with a quantity scale or a grade scale and indicates the minimal part of the property excluding the zero point of a (lower) closed scale, as in (131).

(131)

0

If the event is involved, the stipulation will change into something resembling (132).

(132)

...

0 1

The interval from zero (0) to one (1) signifies that the event is executing and it then culminates at 1, where a property such as the state of guoyin 'satisfied' exists.11 Such an idea is also similar to the value transition proposed by Van Wyngaerd (2001) that adjectives involve a change of value on a bounded scale and such transitions are found with resultatives. The transition of values is illustrated in (133).

(133) 0---1/2---α---1 (Van Wyngaerd 2001:73)

For example, chi ge guoyin 'eat GE satisfied' means that the eating event culminates and the

11 The idea of culmination may refer to Parson's (1994) event semantics.

state of guoyin 'satisfied' is achieved. More precisely, on the scale of guoyin, ge only refers to the minimal, interval including the bottom end.

(134) chi ge guoyin 'eat to the point of being satisfied' ...

0 1

In addition, for other examples such as ai ge si qu huo lai 'love (someone) very deeply,' the idiom represents a closed scale, but it does not affect the denotation of ge. The minimal requirement is existence of the state si qu huo lai 'very deeply'.

(135) Ai ge si qu huo lai 'love very deeply' ...

0 1

In addition, numeral phrases are illustrated in (136)-(138). Ge refers to the minimal part of the specific quantity such as wu 'five', and then derives 'five' as a whole. In fact, the minimal part of numerals that ge denotes is also the maximal part of numerals since the quantity of numerals is defined by numbers such as two, three, or five (See the plurals and maximalization discussed by Landman 1998). The configuration of NumP is shown in (138).

(136) a. Zhe tai che keyi zuo de xia  ji  ge ren? 

this Cl car can sit DE down how CL people 'How many people are allowed in this car?'

b. Dagai keyi zuo ge wu ge ren.

probably can seat GE five CL people 'Probably five people.'

(137) Wo chi ge liang san wan hongdou tang jiu bao le.

  I eat GE two three bowl red beans soup just full ASP 'I ate two or three bowls of red bean soup and I was full.'

(138)

0 2 3 5

V ge (bare) NP, where ge indicates the minimal part on the scale of quantity of NP, is now examined, see (139). It is noted that the zero point of the scale is not included in the denotation of ge.

(139) (shui) jiao ' a sleep'

0

It should be noted that the minimal requirement of the cognate NP will influence its corresponding verb since they have homogeneous meaning, especially in idiom chunks such as shui-jiao 'sleep a sleep,' liao-tian 'talk a talk,' you-yong 'swim a swim,' and jie-hun 'marry a marriage'. The idea is related to homomorphism, which is formally captured by Krifka in terms of mapping to objects and mapping to events, and defined as a characteristic of thematic role R as follows (Krifka1989: 92).

(140) a. Mapping to objects

∀R [MAP-O (R)

∀e∀ e' ∀ x [ R (e, x) ∧ e' ⊆ E e → ∃x' [ x' ⊆ O x ∧ R(e', x' ) ]]]

MAP-O guarantees that all sub-events e' of a given event e with participant x in role R involve

a part x' of x. The opposite direction is mapping to events. Typical examples are verbs with incremental themes such as eat and drink. While the eating event is executing, the amount of the food such rice which is eaten will increase and vice versa. This shows that the relationship between verbs and nouns are quite close and they will impact each other. By extending this idea, a homomorphic relation between the theme argument (or the noun) and the corresponding event (or the verb) is shown responsible for the whole VN compound to receive the minimal requirement.

The account of homomorphism can be also applied to other V-N compounds and V-O structures such as chi-fan 'eat rice,' duo-shu 'read books,' chou-yan 'smoke a cigarette,' he-shui 'drink water,' and shang-cesuo 'go to toilet.'12 Consequently, the whole VP acquires the minimal denotation. A minimal event which may contain sub-elements such as minimal quantity and minimal duration may extend the minimality to the illocutionary force such as importance, thus trivial reading is derived pragmatically. The minimal analysis can explain the frequent occurrence and ungrammaticality of certain contexts. For example, phrases with positive extension such as zhongda 'important' and duo 'more' do not cooccur with V ge NP.

(141) a. *Jie ge hun zheme zhongda de shi, zenme neng bu jinshen?

marry GE marriage such important DE thing, how can no careful

'Getting married is such an important thing. How can you not be careful?'   b. Jie ge hun, zhe dian xiao shi, you biyao zheme puzhang-langfei ma?

Marry GE marriage, this bit small thing have necessity such extravagant Q?

'Is it necessary to be that extravagant just to get married ?'

12 The distinction of V-N compound and V-O structure is discussed in Chapter 2. However, the distinction is not that clear. As long as the NP is bare, it is closer/more adjacent to the verb, and thus easier to be influenced.

(142) a. *Ge  ge ming  zheme zhongda de shi, zenme bu cong zhang revolute GE revolution such important DE thing, why not from long jiyi ne?

plan SFP

'A revolution is such an important thing. Why not plan carefully?' b. Ge  ge ming  zhe dian xiao shi  you name nan  ma?

revolute GE revolution this bit small thing have that difficult Q?

'A revolution is such a small thing. Is it that difficult?'

(143) a. ??Duo nian ge shu, bijiao  hao  zhao gongzuo. 

more study GE book, comparably good find job 'Studying more is easier to find jobs.'

b. ??Duo chou ge yan, bu hui zenyang. 

more smoke GE cigarette, no will how 'Smoking more will not have any effects.'

c. Shao chou ge yan  jiu keyi duo huo ji  nian. 

less smoke GE cigarette just can more live several year 'Smoking less and you will live more years.'

Why does the minimality of AP not influence its verb? The result state is not a real internal argument of a verb, and therefore it is not as easy as bare NPs.13 The result state is also clear and exact. In addition, the numeral phrases have specific quantity, the minimality effect ge results in almost the same quantity, but differs only in intensifying the collectivity of the quantity.14 In the phrase he ge liang sang bei kafe 'drink two or three cups of coffee,' the

13 An internal argument is the complement which is obligatory for a verb. For example, pingguo 'apple' is the internal argument of verb chi 'eat,' while guoyin 'satisfied' is not.

14 The collective denotation may refer to Liu (2004), where he considers ge as a group classifier functioning

quantity is 'two or three' and the minimal part is 'two or three.' The minimality effect seems to be weakened in the case of numerals. Therefore, ge is not strong enough to impact the verbs.

However, this possibility should not be excluded. Moreover, it is likely that the minimality of ge may influence the verbs to some extent in the case of APs and NumPs.

An additional question about definition regards why the term “minimal” is used instead of “diminutive” as discussed previously. Diminutive means 'small' but it must define a standard for what is considered as small. “Minimal” used here also implies 'small,' but includes at least the minimum standard for the existence of the property, which is more concrete.

like a parcel packing in the case of V ge NumP. He also uses zonggong 'altogether' for the collectivity test.

CHAPTER 5

________________________________________________________________

CONCLUSION

To sum up, based on Doetjes' (1997) analysis of quantification and selection, I argue that ge gradually changes from a classifier denoting a specific quantity or a unit into a degree quantifier, i.e., DQ, denoting an uncertainty quantity─ more specifically, a minimal quantity or degree. This proposal can account for the diachronic change of ge and its correlation with classifiers. Instead of the adjunct status of DQ, I propose that ge is a head which theta binds phrases with [+N] features such as nouns and adjectives. The head status of ge can explain the DE raised in the context of nouns and the co-occurrence restriction with other degree modifiers in the context of adjectives.

From the syntactic point of view, an adjective contains a scalar degree while a noun involves a scalar quantity. The function of ge is to denote the minimal part of the degree or quantity on the scale. In V ge NP, the minimal meaning of the NP influences its verb and thus a trivial reading is derived for the whole VP. On the other hand, since a NumP contains a specific quantity, the minimal part is the numeral itself, and thus ge indicates such a quantity with respect to the numeral. In V ge AP, the minimal requirement for the true condition is at least the existence of the adjectival state.

Overall, this thesis provides a unified analysis from both syntactic and semantic perspectives.

However, many issues remains unexplored. One important issue concerns pragmatic factors.

For instance, in what contexts will people use the V ge XP construction? The data shows that

the construction usually appears in imperatives and intentional contexts. Whether there are certain licensing conditions or whether ge is a polarity item; such questions require further investigation in future studies.

REFERENCES

Biq, Yung-O. 2002. Classifier and construction: the interaction of grammatical categories and cognitive strategies. Language and Linguistics 3.3: 521-542.

Biq, Yung-O. 2004. Construction, reanalysis, and stance: 'V yi ge N' and variations in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics 36: 3637-1654.

Chao, Yen Ren. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. (Translated edition by Ting Pan-Hsin.1980. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press )

Cheng, Lisa L.-S. and Sybesma, Rint. 1998. Yi-wan tang, yi-ge-tang: classifiers and massifiers. Tsing-Hua Journal of Chinese Studies. New Series 28:3, 385-412

Cheng, Lisa L.-S. and Sybesma, Rint. 1999. Bare and not-so-bare nouns and the structure of NP. Linguistic Inquiry 30.4: 509- 542.

Cheng, Lisa L.-S. and Sybesma, Rint. 2005. Classifiers in four varieties of Chinese. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax, ed. by Guglielmo Cinque & Richard S.

Kayne, 259-292. New York: Oxford University Press.

Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998. Plurality of mass nouns and the notion of semantic parameter.

Events and Grammar, ed. by Susan Rothstein, 53-103. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Chomsky, Noam and Halle, Morris. 1968. The Sound Pattern of English. Harper and Row:

New York

Chomsky, Noam. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Chomsky, Noam. 1974. The Amherst Lectures, unpublished lecture notes distributed by Documents Linguistiques, University of Paris VII. Plurality and Conjunction.

Doetjes, Jenny. 1997. Quantifiers and Selection: On the Distribution of Quantifying Expression in French, Dutch and English. Dissertation, Leiden University, HAG, The Hague.

Hoeksema, Jacob. 1983. Plurality and Conjunction. Studies in Model-Theoretic Semantics, ed.

by Alice ter Meulen, 63-64. Walter de Gruyter.

Huang, C.-T. James. 1987. Existential Sentences in Chinese and (In)definiteness. The Representation of (In)definiteness, ed. by Eric J. Reuland and Alice G.B. ter Meulen, 226-253. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Huang, C.-T. James. 1988. Wo pao de kaui and Chinese Phrase Structure. Language 64: 274-311.

Huang, C.-T. James. 1997. On Lexical Structure and Syntactic Projection. Chinese Languages and Linguistics 3, 45-89.

Hsieh, Maio-Ling. 2008. The Internal Structure of Noun Phrases in Chinese. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics Book Series in Chinese Linguistics. No. 2. Taipei: Crane Publishing.

Jurafsky, Daniel. 1996. Universal Tendencies in the Semantics of the Diminutive. Language 72: 533-578.

Kennedy, Christopher and Louise McNally. 1999. From event structure to scale structure:

degree modification in deverbal adjectives. Semantics and Linguistic Theory 9:163-180.

Kennedy, Christopher and Louise McNally. 2005. Scale structure, degree modification, and the semantics of gradable predicates. Language 81:345-381.

Landman, Fred. 1998. Plurals and maximalization. Events and Grammar, ed. by Susan Rothstein, 237-271. Kluwer: Dordrecht.

Li, Y-H. Audrey. 1998. Argument determiner phrases and number phrases. Linguistics 29:

693-702.

Li, I. Cherry & Wang, F-M. Leslie. 2003. Conceptual mapping and functional shift: the case of Taiwanese Southern Min cit-e . Language and Linguistics 4.2: 403-428.

Lin, T.-H. Jonah. 2001. Light Verb Syntax and the Theory of Phrase Structure. Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Irvine.

Liu, Chen-Sheng. 2004. Collectivity and indefiniteness effect: a special use of the Chinese pronoun ta, paper presented at the Sixteen North American Conference of Chinese Linguistics, University of Iowa.

Lü, Shu-Xiang. 1980 Xiandai Hanyu Babaici. [800 Words in Modern Chinese]. Beijing:

Shangwu

Lü, Shu-xiang. 1984. The uses of ge as a classifier, with Remarks concerning the dropping of yi before ge and other classifiers. Studies in Chinese Grammar. Beijing: Shangwu

Shao, Jing-Min. 1984. Dong+ge+xing/dong jiegou fenxi [Analysis of V+ge+A/V construction], Hanyu xuexi [Chinese Language Learning] 2.

Shi, Yu-Zhi. 2006. Yufahua de dongyin yu jizhi [Motivation and Mechanism of Grammaticalization in Chinese]. Beijing: Beijing University Press.

Shu, Chih-Hsiang. 2007. On the clitic status of the verbal classifier/mood marker ge in Chinese. Manuscript. Stony Brook University.

Sun, Chao-Fen. 2006. Chinese: An Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press.

Tang, C.-C. Jane. 1990. Chinese Phrases Structure and the Extended X'-Theory. Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University.

Travis, Lisa. 1984. Parameters and Effects of Word Order. Doctoral Dissertation, MIT, Cambridge, MA.

Van Greenhoven, Veerle. 1998. Semantic Incorporation and Indefinite Descriptions:

Semantic and Syntactic Aspects of Noun Incorporation in West Greenlandic. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publication.

Vanden Wyngaerd, Guido. 2001. Measuring events. Language 77: 61-90

Wu, Zoe. 2002. Wo pao-le ge feikuai and reanalysis of the classifier ge. On the Formal Way to Chinese Languages,ed. by Sze-Wing Tang and Chen-Sheng Luther Liu, 163-188.

CSLI Publication.

You, Ru-Jie. 1983. Buyu de biaozhi ge he de [The complement marker ge and de], Hanyu xuexi [Chinese Language Learning] 3.

Zhu, De-Xi. 1982. Yufa jiang yi [The Notes of Grammar]. Beijing: Shangwu

相關文件