Situation Types Included in the Experiment

In Section 2.3, we have pointed out some problems in previous studies and modified their classifications of situation types in Mandarin. We have concluded that the situation types should be divided into Activity, Accomplishments (non-completive), Accomplishments (distance), Achievements, RVCs, Semelfactives, State, State-location (posture verbs), and Change with no result. However, among

these situation types, Liu’s (2012) change with no result, State-location (posture

verbs), Accomplishments (distance), and Smith’s (1991, 1997) Semelfactives would

not be included in the experiment for the reasons presented below.

Liu’s change with no result, such as mànmàn shēnggāo ‘slowly go up’, has a

change of state but has no obvious and specific result. For example, we can see a balloon shēnggāo ‘go up’ above the ground as the change of state. But we don’t know where the endpoint of shēnggāo ‘goes up’ is and how high the balloon is going to reach. Such verbs are so-called ‘degree achievements’, such as widen, lengthen, cool, dry, and straighten (Dowty 1979). As first observed in Dowty (1979), these verbs

display both telic and atelic properties. Such properties make degree achievements controversial, causing problems for theories of aspectual classification, since they constitute one area in which the traditional aspectual system breaks down. Therefore, degree achievements (or change with no result) were not included in the questionnaire

design because of the complexity of this type.

We have pointed out that Liu’s State-location type is actually posture verbs with

locative adjuncts, such as zuò zài dìshàng ‘sit on the ground’. According to Li and Thompson (1981), posture verbs denote body posture or position, such as zuò ‘sit’, zhàn ‘stand’, tǎng ‘lie’, ná ‘take’, bào ‘hold’, pěng ‘hold’. However, posture verbs

would not be included into the present study due to the complexity of the locative

inversion sentence patterns in which posture verbs appear. According to Yu & Ueda (1999:160) and Li & Hsieh (2015:32), posture verbs occurring with -zhe have a resultant state and they can appear in locative inversion sentence patterns, as illustrated in (1a) and (1b).

(1) a. Tā zài chuáng-shàng tǎng-zhe.

he at bed-on lie-ZHE

‘He is lying on the bed.’

b. Chuáng-shàng tǎng-zhe yī-gè xiǎo yīngér.

bed-on lie-ZHE one-CL little infant

‘An infant is lying on the bed.’

The locative inversion sentence pattern with posture verbs may be difficult for L2 mid-level learners since they haven’t studied such a pattern in the textbooks yet.

Thus, posture verbs were not incorporated into the present study.

Liu’s Accomplishments (distance), such as pǎo yī lǐ lù ‘run a mile’, denotes

necessary completion and they are incompatible with progressive zai (Liu 2012).

However, since L2 mid-level learners haven’t learned enough vocabulary words of units for measuring distance in the textbooks yet, Accomplishments (distance) would

not be included in the experiment.

Smith’s (1997) Semelfactives, referring to dynamic, atelic, and instantaneous

single events, such as qiāo ‘knock’, pāi ‘pat’, and ké ‘cough’, were not included into this study either because iterative Semelfactives are considered to be ‘derived Activities’, as illustrated in (2).

(2) Zhāngsān zài qiāo mén.

Zhangsan ZAI knock door

‘Zhangsan is knocking at the door.’ (Smith 1997:272) (2) is well-formed because the action of qiāo ‘knock’ must be iterative, with more than once knocking on the door. As discussed in 2.2.2.1, iterative Semelfactives can be viewed as denoting multiple Semelfactive events, which in turn can be seen as a derived Activity with duration and without endpoints, according to Smith (1997:272). Therefore, Semelfatives were not included into the experiment.

As a result, the situation types that were included in the experiment are Activities, Accomplishments (non-completive), Achievements, States, and RVCs. In addition, states and RVCs were further divided into two sub-categories, respectively. The definitions of these situation types are described as follows.

Activities are the least contentious type in the literature. The present study follows previous studies’ definition and defines Activity as a dynamic atelic event

without a natural endpoint. Pao ‘run’, zou ‘walk’, chang ‘sing’, kan dianshi ‘watch TV’, and the like are examples of Activities. In Mandarin, Activities are compatible

with imperfective zai and -zhe as in (3a-b).

(3) a. Tā zài chàng gē, chàng de zhēn hǎo tīng.

He ZAI sing song sing DE very good listen ‘He is singing and he sings very well.’

b. Tā zài jiāoshì-lǐ chàng-zhe gē, kànqǐlái hěn kuàilè.

he at classroom-in sing-ZHE song look very happy ‘He is singing in the classroom and he looks happy.’

As for States, this study follows Smith (1991, 1997) and describes them as static

situations with duration and without an endpoint (atelic). However, Yeh’s (1993) and Smith’s classification of States into stage-level predicates and individual-level

predicates would not be adopted in the study. According to Yeh (1993:86) and Smith (1997:273), stage-level predicates, like, ài ‘love’, xǐhuān ‘like’, and gāoxìng ‘glad’, can co-occur with durative -zhe, while individual-level predicates, like zhīdào ‘know’

and piāoliàng ‘pretty’ cannot. However, ài ‘love’ and xǐhuān ‘like’ are more like individual-level predicates, which denote properties of longer duration, rather than stage-level predicates, which denotes transitory properties. Contrary to Yeh and Smith’s point of view, we consider some individual-level predicates can also occur

with -zhe, such as ài ‘love’and xǐhuān ‘like’, and some cannot, like gāo ‘tall’ and piāoliàng ‘pretty’. On the other hand, for stage-level predicates like shāngxīn ‘sad’, nánguò ‘upset’, and gāoxìng ‘glad’, they are somehow unnatural to co-occur with -zhe

in Taiwan Mandarin. Therefore, the concept of stage-level predicates and individual-level predicates was not adopted to classify states in this study. In the present study, States are simply divided into two types: one consists of stative verbs, compatible with durative -zhe, like xǐhuān ‘like’, ài ‘love’, and yīlài ‘rely’; the other

one consists of adjectives, which are incompatible with durative -zhe, such as piāoliàng ‘pretty’, gāo ‘tall’, and shuài ‘handsome’.

The Accomplishments in Mandarin are the most controversial situation type. As

reviewed in Chapter Two, Liu (2012) divides Accomplishments into Accomplishments (non-completive), Accomplishments (goal), Accomplishments

(duration), and Accomplishments (distance), while Tai (1984) groups Accomplishments, Achievements and RVCs as ‘result’. As discussed in Section 2.3,

Accomplishments, RVCs, and Achievements should be distinguished in Mandarin. In addition, Liu’s Accomplishment (goal) should be grouped together with directional

RVCs and her Accomplishments (duration) are not considered to denote telic events.

In this study, Smith’s (1991, 1997) Accomplishment [V+NPcount] (or Liu’s Accomplishment (non-completive)) was adopted, which is denoted by a verb with a countable argument (Smith 1997:29). They consist of a process and a result and are compatible with the progressive zai and the durative -zhe in Mandarin, as in (4a-b).

(4) a. Tā zài xiě yī-fēng xìn, xiě gěi gùxiāng de māmā.

he ZAI write one-CL letter write to hometown DE mother ‘He is writing a letter to his mother in the hometown.’

b. Tā zài fáng lǐ xiě-zhe yī-fēng xìn, zhǔnbèi míngtiān jì he at room in write-ZHE one-CL letter prepare tomorrow send chūqù.

out

‘He is writing a letter in the room, preparing to send it out tomorrow.’

Achievements in this study refer to resultative simple verbs which describe

events that are dynamic, instantaneous, and telic. For instance, verbs like sǐ ‘die’, pò

‘break’, dào ‘arrive’, yíng ‘win’, and dǎo ‘fall’ all fall into this type. In Mandarin,

Achievements are not compatible with the progressive zai and the durative -zhe, as in

(5a-b).

(5) a. *Lǎowáng zài sǐ.

Laowang ZAI die ‘Laowang is dying.’

b. *Lǎowáng sǐ-zhe.

Laowang die-ZHE

Besides, the present study adopts Smith’s (1997) directional RVCs and

resultative RVCs. According to Li & Thompson (1981) and Tai (1984), RVCs are verb compounds consisting of two verbal elements, denoting an action and a result, respectively, such as xué-huì ‘study-understand’ and shā-sǐ ‘kill-die’. According to Tai (1984), RVCs denote only the result aspect in their aspectual meaning, which makes RVCs clash with the progressive aspect zai and the durative marker -zhe in spite of the fact that their first constituent is an Activity, which signifies atelic action, as in (6a-b).

(6) a. * Tā zài xué-huì zhōngwén.

he ZAI learn-understand Mandarin ‘He is learning Mandarin.’

b. * Tā xué-huì-zhe zhōngwén.

he learn-understand-ZHE Mandarin

As reviewed in Section 2.2.1, Smith (1997) classifies RVCs into two types:

directional RVCs and resultative RVCs. The result element of Smith’s resultative

RVCs indicates a change of state, such as dǒng in tīng-dǒng ‘listen-understand’ and huì in xué-huì ‘learn-know’. On the other hand, the result element of directional RVCs

refers to direction of an action and locates a different location as a change of state,

such as chū in pǎo-chū ‘run-exit’ and jìn in zǒu-jìn ‘walk-enter’. The reason of adopting these two types of RVC in the study is because the second element of resultative RVCs and directional RVCs denote quite different properties in that one is resultative change of state and the other one is directional change of state, which might bring about different outcomes when they are tested with zai and -zhe.

To sum up, in the present study, seven situation types in Mandarin Chinese were included, namely, Activity, Accomplishment, State (verbal), State (adjectival), Achievement, resultative RVC, and directional RVC, as shown in table 3-2 below.

Table 3-2 Situation Types Included in the Questionnaire

situation type example zai zhe Dynamic Durative telic

Activity kàn diànshì

‘watch TV’ yes yes + + -

Accomplishment dú yī běn shū

‘read a book’ yes yes + + +

State (verbal) ài‘love’ no yes - + -

State (adjectival) piāoliàng ‘pretty’ no no - + -

Achievement pò ‘break’ no no + - +

Resultative RVC ^tīng-dǒng

‘listen-understand’ no no + - +

Directional RVC zǒu-jìn ‘walk-in’ no no + - +