Mean Referring
4.5 Semantic Extension from Other P-C-U Verbs to Manipulation Verbs in Mandarin
The verbs which probably display multiple memberships of P-C-U and manipulation are listed in Table 14 below.
Table 14: Verbs Extending from P-C-U to Manipulation
Verb Class Manipulation Verbs
Perception 聽 ting, kan 看,ding 盯
Cognition 想 xiang, 計劃 jihua, 打算 dasuan, 主張 zhuzhang,
Utterance 叫jiao,喊 han, 呼喊 huhan,呼叫 hujiao, 呼籲 huyu,吩咐 fenfu, 命令mingling,告訴 gaosu, 建議jianyi, 提議 tiyi
Since the manipulative uses of kan, xiang and shuo has been discussed in Section 4.1, this section will take ting ‘to listen to’ and jiao ‘to call out’ which show the most frequent counts in the corpora for illustration and comparison.
The polysemous verb ting belongs to two different frames, i.e. Perception_active Frame and Compliance Frame in FrameNet (cf. Table 15).
Table 15: Senses and Semantic Frames of Polysemous Ting
Sense Frame Semantic Roles &
Syntactic Category
Example
Percevier_agentive [NP] < * <
Phenomenon [NP, VP]
我們聽著外面的蟲聲。
我們聽小鳥鳴叫。
1 listen Perception_active Imperative:
Perceiver_agentive [NP] < (Manner)
< * (Phenomenon)
你(仔細地)聽(那聲 音)！
2 obey Compliance Protagonist[NP] < * < Norm[NP] 他很聽媽媽的話。
The semantic extension from perception to least manipulation for ting can be illustrated by the instance of ting 聽 shown in (79 a, b).
(79) a. perception: (listen in Perception_active Frame)
我們 聽1 著 外面 的 蟲聲。
Women ting zhe waimian de chongsheng we listen ASP outside DE insect-sound
‘We are listening to the sounds of the insects from outside!’
b. least manipulation: (obey in Compliance Frame) 他 很 聽2 媽媽 的 (話)。
Ta hen ting mama de hua He very listen mom DE words ‘He obeys his mom( his mom’s instruction).’
Comparing sentences (79 a) and (79 b), although the subject and complement of ting1 and ting2 are both noun phrase (NP), we found they differ in their semantic roles.
The frame elements, i.e. participant roles, of (79 a) are Perceiver and Phenomenon_entity while those of (79 b) are Protagonist and Norm. Besides, the sense of ting1 is compatible with aspectual marker, such as zai 在, le 了, zhe 著, and guo 過 whereas ting2 is not. From (79 a) and (79 b), we notice that the root meaning
of ting1 ‘to listen to’ is extended to ting2 ‘to obey’ which codes submission－the reverse or least degree of manipulation. This confirms to the metaphorical linking suggested by Sweetser (1990): HEARING IS OBEDIENCE. The passive reception of phenomenon is analogous to the obedience to the authority and manipulation of others.
Other perception verbs, such as kan 看 and ding 盯 show the reverse metahprical extension: SEEING IS MONITORING.
As for the polysemous verb jiao, it belongs to three different frames, i.e.
Communication_noise Frame, Name_conferral Frame, Request Frame and Commerce_buy Frame in FrameNet (cf. Table 16).
The semantic extension from utterance to manipulation for jiao can be displayed in (80 a, b).
(80) a. Utterance: (cry in Communication_noise Frame)
我叫著：媽媽！小白呢？ (Sinica)
wo jiao zhe：mama！ xiaobai ne I cry ASP: mom! Xiaobai INTR
‘I cry out: Mom! Where is Xiaobai?’
b. Manipulation: (request in Request Frame)
他媽媽叫他去買紅糖， (Google) ta mama jiao ta qu mai hong tang
he mother call he go buy red sugar ‘His mother asks him to buy black sugar.’
Among the four senses, the meaning of ‘to cry’ extends to ‘to request’ as it changes from a verb of utterance to a verb of manipulation by sharing the common background frame, i.e. Communication Frame, and by receiving the meaning coerced by the construction X CAUSE Y (qiu/去) DO Z17, suggesting the Manipulator’s force
17 Another possibility to account for the manipulative use of jiao 叫 is that jiao 叫 mighe be the misuse of the causative verb jiao 教 in the archaic form due to their same pronunciation.
exerting on the Victim (see Figure 26 below).
Table 16: Senses and Semantic Frames of Polysemous Jiao (based on Huang 2008)
Sense Frame Semantic Roles &
Syntactic Category
Example
Sound_producer[NP] < * 小黑狗不停地叫。
Speaker[NP] < * <
Message[NP, VP, CL]
他叫著：「地震/搶
錢阿/任何人都不 准來！」
1 cry Communication_
noise
communicator[NP] < * <
addressee [NP]
3 purchase Purchase Buyer [NP] <向+ Seller [NP]
< * < Goods [NP]
那位客人向老闆叫 了碗麵。
4 Claim Claim ownership Claimant [NP] < * <Property 那小鬼說要叫律師
5 name Name_conferral
(Referring_by_name)
Speaker[NP] < * < Entity[NP]
<Name[NP]
Referring_by_label Entity [NP] < * < Label [NP] 什麼叫無私奉獻，
什麼叫對黨的忠誠
8 Complian Complain Speaker[NP] < * < Message 有人叫錢不夠
Figure 26: Relations and evolvement of frame elements and syntactic patterns among Communication_noise Frame, Request Frame and Manipulation_into_doing Frame
It can be observed from Figure 26 above that coercion of Frame Elements among the tree frames follows the following three veins:
i. Speaker Æ Manipulator ii. Addressee Æ Victim
iii. Message Æ Requested_act Æ Resulting_action
On the one hand, the semantic extension from Request to Manipulation Frame shows a gradation of manipulative strength. The Request Frame codes a weaker manipulation since ‘X requests Y to do something’ doesn’t imply the successfulness of the manipulation whereas the Manipulate_into_doing Frame codes stronger
strength of manipulation weaker < --- > stronger
Communication
Communication_noise Request
Intentionally-affect
Manipulate_into_doing
Speaker
Message
Speaker
Requested_act Addressee
Manipulator
Resulting_action Victim
Speaker < *
小黑狗不停地叫。
Speaker < * (Aspectual marekr) < Message
我叫著：媽媽！小白呢？
Speaker < * < Addressee < (deitic) Requested_act
他媽媽叫他去買紅糖。
Manipulator < * < Victim < Resulting_action
爸爸強迫我繼承他的事業。
mapping via construction: X CAUSE Y (qiu/去) DO Z
manipulation since ‘X manipulates Y to do something’ implies that the manipulation and obligation imposed on the manipulee have been exerted. On the other hand, the different meanings of jiao are accompanied by distinct syntactic features. The sense of jiao1 is compatible with aspectual markers, such as zai 在, le 了, zhe 著, and guo 過 whereas jiao3 is not. Other utterance verbs, such as fenfu 吩咐 shows similar semantic extension to manipulation verbs via construction.