論中文範域論旨角色 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學語言學研究所碩士論文. National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of Linguistics Master Thesis. 指導教授：何萬順 Advisor: One-Soon Her. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大論中文範域論旨角色. ‧. On the Thematic Role Extent in Mandarin Chinese. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. 研究生：謝依庭撰 Student: Yi-Ting Xie 中華民國九十九年六月 June, 2010. v.

(2) On the Thematic Role Extent in Mandarin Chinese. 立. 政 BY 治大 Yi-Ting Xie. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. al. sit. y. Nat. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Institute of Linguistics in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. Ch. engchi. June, 2010. i Un. v.

(3) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. Copyright © 2010 Yi-Ting Xie All Rights Reserved. iii. v.

(4) Acknowledgements 謝誌. 隨著論文的完成，研究所的生活也將告一段落，雖然嘴裡總嚷嚷著想趕快畢業，此時此刻卻又湧起ㄧ絲不捨。本篇論文能順利完成，要感謝我的指導教授何萬順老師，老師是我非常景仰的一位教授，最欣賞老師的學富五車以及創意不絕，在論文寫作的期間給了我很多啟發，更欣賞老師的幽默風趣，讓我們的研究生活增添歡樂氣息。同時也感謝口試委員曹逢甫老師以及張郇慧老師，兩位老師給予的寶貴意見讓我獲益良多，也讓整篇論文更加充實完善。另外，還要感謝語言所的黃瓊之老師，蕭宇超老師，萬依萍老師，以及曾經授課過的徐嘉慧老師，詹惠珍老師，莫建清老師，在老師們的課堂間所學的知識讓我奠定了寫論文的基礎。還要感謝語言所很重要的ㄧ位人物, 助教曾惠鈴學姊，不管是在辦公室打工的時候，或是寫論文的期間，都受到學姊很多的照顧，學姐對我們的學業以及生活就像姊姊般的關心。. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. ‧. 研究所生活不可或缺的好伙伴們就是所上的同學，感謝六小福成員琬茹，郁賢，筱茜，光中，佩霖，歡樂的時候有你們一起分享，煩悶的時候有你們一起抱怨，學業有問題時也能一起討論，感謝你們豐富了我的研究生活。還要感謝芮華總是很熱心助人，幫了我很多忙，也很高興你能跟我ㄧ起去當志工。另外還有翠屏惠鈞綠茜雨倫麗婷嘉儂旺桢冠琄復真郁玲昆翰，感謝大家在研究所期間的陪伴以及激勵。也感謝博士班的婉婷學姊在論文上給予許多幫助。另外還有大學時期的諸多朋友，社團的夥伴們，任何形式的加油打氣都是很重要的。謝謝冠誌在論文寫作期間的照顧，煩悶時陪我去爬山，怠惰時提醒我努力，焦慮時平撫我的情緒，有你真好。. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 最重要的是要感謝我的家人，感謝外公外婆的鼓勵，讓我在大學畢業後選擇繼續攻讀研究所，感謝爸爸媽媽無私的奉獻，讓我無後顧之憂的完成學業，感謝兩個可愛的妹妹，你們是我努力的動力。我愛你們。將這篇論文獻給在安康社區的婆婆伯伯們，去訪視你們的時候是研究所生活中最開心的時光之ㄧ，感謝你們充實我的心靈，希望你們每天都開開心心。. iv.

(5) Table of Contents. Acknowledgements ..................................................................................iv Chinese Abstract .....................................................................................vii English Abstract.......................................................................................ix Chaper 1. Introduction...........................................................................................1. 政治大. 1.1 The thematic role Extent ...............................................................................1. 立. 1.2 Motivation and purpose of the thesis ...........................................................4. ‧ 國. 學. 1.3 Organization of the thesis..............................................................................5. ‧. 2. Literature Review .................................................................................7. sit. y. Nat. 2.1 Extent as a semantic role...............................................................................7. io. er. 2.2 Extent as an argument.................................................................................10 2.2.1 Extent and Patient ............................................................................13 2.2.2 Extent and Theme .............................................................................19. n. al. Ch. i. i Un. v. engch 3. Extent in Mandarin Chinese..............................................................23 3.1 Number expression as Extent......................................................................23 3.2 Duration as Extent .......................................................................................27. 4. Analogy between Action Verbs and Psychological Verbs................35 4.1 Verb types of the sentence structure...........................................................35 4.1.1 Verb classification of Jackson (1990)...............................................35 4.1.2 Verb classification of Vendler (1957) ...............................................38 4.2 Subject NP of the sentence structure..........................................................42 4.3 Additional meaning with the sentence structure.......................................48. v.

(6) 4.4 Psychological verbs ......................................................................................51 4.4.1 Types of psychological verbs ............................................................51 4.4.2 Psychological verbs with duration...................................................55 4.5 Analogy between action verbs and psych verbs ........................................61. 5. Proto-roles and Lexical Mapping ..................................................... 67 5.1 Lexical functional grammar........................................................................67 5.1.1 Lexical mapping theory....................................................................67 5.1.2 Proto-role approach ..........................................................................70 5.2 A mixed account of LFG and proto-role approach ...................................73 5.3 Lexical mapping of the psych verbs in Mandarin Chinese ......................77. 治政 5.4 The composite role and lexical mapping....................................................80 大立 5.5 Causativity and argument realization........................................................83 ‧ 國. 學. 6. Conclusion........................................................................................... 87. ‧. References ............................................................................................... 90. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. vi. i Un. v.

(7) 國. 立. 政. 治. 大. 學. 研. 究所. 碩. 士. 論. 文. 提. 要. 研究所別：語言學研究所論文名稱：論中文範域論旨角色指導教授：何萬順教授研究生：謝依庭論文提要內容：(共 1 冊，17,119 字，分 6 章). 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. 範域 (Extent)這個論旨角色在漢語中是個常見卻鮮少被研究的論旨角色 (Halliday, 1964; Teng, 1975; Dowty, 1991; Huang, 1993; Her, 2009)，本研究旨在探. ‧. 討漢語中的範域論旨角色並且為以客體(Theme)，感受者(Experiencer)，以及範域. sit. y. Nat. io. al. n. 此類句子。. er. (Extent)三個論旨角色為論元的句子提出合理的解釋，例如 “一本書寫了他三年”. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 本篇論文的第一部份探討漢語中的數量詞(number expression)以及時間詞 (duration)並且指出在漢語中他們經常被指派為範域論旨角色(Extent)。接著探討 “一本書寫了他三年＂此類句子，並且提出活動動詞(activity verb)以及達成動詞 (accomplishment verb)會模仿心理動詞(psych verb)因此產生此類句型，也就是客體 (Theme)在主詞位置，而感受者(Experiencer)以及範域(Extent)為受詞。由於動詞｀寫＇模仿了心理動詞，而且此類句型著重在受詞受到動詞的影響，因此原本的主事者(Agent) ｀他＇成為主事者和感受者的複合角色(composite role)，但是只有 vii.

(8) 感受者參與詞彙照映(lexical mapping)。論文最後一部份為“一本書寫了他三年＂此類句子進行詞彙照映(lexical mapping)，本篇論文參照 Zaenen (1993)的混合解釋方法(mixed account)以及 Her (1999, 2003, 2007)的統一映照理論(unified mapping principle)成功的解釋了此類句子的論元體現(argument realization) 。. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. viii. i Un. v.

(9) Abstract Extent (Dowty, 1991; Her, 2009) is also referred to as Range (Halliday, 1964; Teng, 1975) or Domain (Huang 1993). It is a less studied yet commonly seen thematic role in Mandarin Chinese. This thesis aims to investigate the thematic role Extent in Mandarin Chinese, and to propose an explanation for the sentence where the verb has three arguments as Theme, Experiencer and Extent, such as yi4ben3 shu1 xie3le5 ta1. 政治大. san1 nian2 ‘It took him three years to write a book’.. 立. In the first part, this thesis explores the thematic role Extent in Mandarin. ‧ 國. 學. Chinese, and it is proposed that number expression and duration be considered as. ‧. Extent. Then, the sentences having three arguments such as in the sentence yi4ben3. y. Nat. er. io. sit. shu1 xie3le5 ta1 san1 nian2 ‘It took him three years to write a book’ are investigated. It is proposed that activity verb and accomplishment verb model the syntactic. al. n. iv n C h ecan behavior of psych verb so that they i U in the subject position and n ghave c hTheme Experiencer and Extent as two complements. Since the activity verb xie3 ‘write’ models the psych verb and the sentence structure focuses on the [affected] feature of the object, the Agent ta1 ‘he’ becomes a composite role of Agent and Experiencer, but only the Experiencer can participate in the lexical mapping. In the last part of the thesis, the lexical mapping of the sentence yi4ben3 shu1 xie3le5 ta1 san1 nian2 ‘It took him three years to write a book’ is demonstrated. This thesis adopts Zaenen’s. ix.

(10) (1993) mixed account and Her’s (1999, 2003, 2007) unified mapping principle (UMP) to successfully account for the argument realization of the sentence.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. x. i Un. v.

(11) Chapter 1 Introduction. The notion of thematic roles has been used by many linguists in the statement or description of natural language generalization (Dowty, 1989). Jackendoff (1990) noted that because of the importance of thematic roles, it is essential to know what they really are. Thematic roles have been widely-studied in linguistics since they are. 政治大. involved in both semantics and syntax. The notion of thematic role itself occurs at the. 立. conceptual level, which has much to do with semantics. When it comes to argument. ‧ 國. 學. selection, thematic roles play an important role in syntax.. ‧ y. Nat. er. io. sit. 1.1 The thematic role Extent. The labels for thematic roles which are common in literature include Agent,. al. n. iv n C U is a less-studied yet commonly h e nand Patient, Experiencer, Theme, Source h i There g cGoal. seen thematic role called Extent (Dowty 1991 and Her 2009), also referred to as Range (Halliday 1964 and Teng 1975) or Domain (Huang 1993). Since this thematic role often appears as a measure element to describe the extent of the verb, in this thesis, we will use the term Extent. Sentences with the thematic role Extent are presented as follows (Dowty 1991).. (1). a. This weighs five pounds. 1.

(12) 2. b. This piano measures 6’5’’.. The measure elements ‘five pounds’ and ‘6’5’’’ are arguments of the verbs and assigned the thematic role Extent. In Mandarin Chinese, it is also common to have measure phrases in sentences, such as in the following examples (Teng 1975). (2) a. 這輛. 車. zhe4liang4 che1 This-CL. car. 值. 三千. 元. 政 yuan2治大 worth three-thousand dollar 立 zhi2. san1qian1. 欠. 他. ‧ 國. b. 我. 十塊. 學. ‘This car is worth 3000 dollars.’ 錢. ‧. wo3 qian4 ta1 shi2kuai4 qian2. y. he. ten-CL money. io. sit. owe. Nat. I. er. ‘I owed him ten dollars.’. al. n. iv n C h e ningMandarin, Duration is another common measure phrase c h i Uyet its thematic role is less discussed. Sentences with duration are presented as follows. (3) a. ㄧ頓. 飯. 吃了. 他. 三. 小時. yi2dun4 fan4 ch1le5 ta1 san1 xiao3shi2 One-CL meal eat-ASP he. three. hour. ‘It took him three hours to eat a meal.’ b. ㄧ包. 菸. yi4bao1 yan1. 抽了 chou1le5. 他. 三. 天. ta1 san1 tian1.

(13) 3. One-CL cigarette smoke-ASP he three day ‘It took him three days to smoke a pack of cigarettes.’ c. ㄧ本. 書. 寫了. yi4ben3 shu1 xie3le5. 他. 三. ta1 san1. 年 nian2. One-CL book write-ASP he three years ‘It took him three years to write a book.’ In these sentences, the duration phrases 三小時 san1xiao3shi2 ‘three hours’ 三天. 政治大. san1tian1 ‘three days’, and 三年 san1nian2 ‘three years’ are all arguments and. 立. should be assigned thematic roles.. ‧ 國. 學. Another problem that needs to be solved is the seeming inversion between. ‧. subject and object in the above construction. The commonly accepted generalization. y. Nat. er. io. sit. is that syntactic prominency is co-related with the thematic hierarchy. In other words, argument structure is built according to thematic hierarchy. The thematic role with the. al. n. iv n C h ehierarchy highest position in the thematic i Uoccupies the position which is the n g c hoften most prominent in the syntactic structure, i.e., subject. Grimshaw (1990) proposed a. version of thematic hierarchy where Agent is the highest argument. Next follows Experiencer, Goal/Source/Location and then finally Theme, as presented in (4).. (4) (Agent ( Experiencer ( Goal/Source/Location (Theme)))).. Among the three sentences in (3), the Agent is in the object position, while the Theme is in the subject position, which is against the thematic hierarchy. Grimshaw (1990).

(14) 4. also noted that one kind of psychological predicate cannot be explained according to the thematic hierarchy. In this kind of psychological predicate, the Experiencer is realized as object and the Theme as subject. The example is presented in (5).. (5) Thunder frightens/disturbs them.. Psychological verbs like ‘frighten’ and ‘disturb’ assign two thematic roles, the Experiencer as the object and the Theme as the subject. The situation is similar to the. 政治大. construction in (3) above, where the thematic role in the lower position of the. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. thematic hierarchy occupies the most prominent position in the syntactic structure.. 1.2 Motivation and purpose of the thesis. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. Previous studies of thematic roles have not included a comprehensive. i Un. v. investigation of Extent, especially in Mandarin. There is little discussion in the. Ch. engchi. literature on Extent, or it is referred to only briefly. The purpose of this thesis includes several parts. The first part is to explore the literature on Extent in English and Mandarin in order to arrive at a holistic understanding of the ways in which it is considered. Next, the thesis will investigate number expressions and duration phrases in Mandarin to further explain that it is reasonable to assign their thematic role as Extent. Last, the syntactic construction in the sentences in (3) will be examined. The thesis will propose an explanation by analogy between action verbs and psychological.

(15) 5. verbs. This thesis also aims to provide the lexical mapping for the sentence structure in (3), under the theoretical framework of Lexical Functional Grammar.. 1.3 Organization of the thesis The previous studies on the thematic role Extent will be presented in Chapter 2. The comparison between Extent and the other two thematic roles, Theme and Patient,. 政治大. will be investigated in section 2.2. In Chapter 3, the exploration of Extent in Mandarin. 立. Chinese will be presented and will mainly focus on number expression and duration. ‧ 國. 學. phrases. The sentence structure in (3) will be examined in Chapter 4 by analogy with. ‧. psychological verbs. In Chapter 5, Lexical Functional Grammar will be applied to. y. Nat. er. io. sit. account for the lexical mapping of the sentences in (3). The theoretical framework is presented in section 5.1 and 5.2, and the lexical mapping of psychological verbs and. al. n. iv n C U he the sentences in (3) are presented in n 5.3 and h g c 5.4,i separately..

(16) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(17) Chapter 2 Literature Review. 2.1 Extent as a semantic role Noun phrases (NPs) have three basic functions, which are semantic, pragmatic, and grammatical functions. Semantic functions, also known as semantic roles, specify how the referents of NPs participate in the meaning of sentences (Andrews 1985).. 政治大. Semantic roles are generally divided into two groups, which are Participatory and. 立. Circumstantial roles. Participatory roles are ones who really participate in the. ‧ 國. 學. situation implied by the verb, such as Agent and Patient. Circumstantial roles,. ‧. however, are ones which do not really participate in such situations. Instead, they. y. Nat. er. io. sit. form part of the setting of the event.. Halliday (1967) proposed that there are four kinds of circumstantial elements,. al. n. iv n C he which are ‘beneficiary’, ‘range’, ‘attribute’, ‘condition’. Range, which is termed n g c handi U. as Extent in the thesis, is used to specify the extent of the scope or relevance of the process. Although Beneficiary and Exent can both be regarded as secondary goals, beneficiary is usually animate while Extent is usually inanimate. The following two sentences are presented as examples of Extent.. (6) a. He climbed the mountain. b. He played five games. 7.

(18) 8. In the two sentences, ‘the mountain’ and ‘five games’ are regarded as extents since neither ‘the mountain’ nor ‘five games’ is a participant in the action. In addition, Extent can be complement or subject in a sentence. Examples are as follows.. (7) a. Every one plays football. b. Football is played (by everyone).. In some cases, Extent is a nominalization of a verb process, and therefore sometimes. 政治大. it is regarded as a ‘cognate object’. The following sentence is presented as illustration.. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. (8) He sang a song.. In the sentence, the Extent ‘a song’ is a nominalization of the verb ‘sing’. However,. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Halliday considered the term “cognate object” to be “over-specific,” and that “cognateness” is best considered as “extension inherent in the process.” In addition,. al. n. iv n C h e n ginto Extent is suggested to be further categorized i Ugroups, quality extent and c htwo quantity extent. The two different kinds of Extent are illustrated with the following examples.. (9) a. He played tennis. b. He played five games.. In Sentence (9a), the Extent ‘tennis’ is a quality extent because it specifies the extension of the verbal process with type. In Sentence (9b), the Extent ‘five games’ is.

(19) 9. a quantity extent since it specifies the scope of the process with a measure element. However, not all measure elements can be considered as arguments. Some of them are adjuncts. The distinction between Extent as argument or adjunct will be discussed in a later section. Teng (1975) borrowed the definition of Extent from Halliday and proposed that the function of Extent is to add specifications to what is implied by the verbs. Teng. 政治大. also noted that because the content of Extent often overlaps with the verb, the content. 立. of Extent tends to be weakened. Consequently, there is a semantic shift of Extent from. ‧ 國. 學. specific to general, which makes Extent a Cognate Object. Teng investigated Extent in. ‧. Mandarin Chinese and present the following sentences in which Extent defines the. y. Nat. er. io. sit. post-verbal elements.. a l值三千元 iv n Ch e n gyuan2 zhe4liang4 che1 zhi2 san1qian1 chi U 車. n. (10) a. 這輛. This-AN. car. worth three-thousand dollar. ‘This car is worth 3000 dollars.’ b. 門. 破了. 一個. men2 po4le5. 洞. yi2ge5 dong4. Door break-ASP one-CL hole ‘The door got a hole in it.’ c. 張三. 唱了. zhang1san1 chang4le5. 一首. 歌. yi4shou3 ge1.

(20) 10. Zhangsan. sing-ASP one-CL song. ‘Zhangsan sang a song.’ The verb 值 zhi2 ‘worth’ in (10a) is a state verb. Since Extent is used to specify the “cognate object,” which is implied by the verb, the choices of Extent are limited. The only way to specify ‘worth’ depends on the measure of money or something else of value. Therefore, the thematic role of the NP 三千元. san1qian1 yuan2. ‘three-thousand dollars’ is Extent in this sentence. In Sentence (10b), the verb 破 po4. 政治大 ‘break’ is a process verb, and the way to specify the fact of damage is by means of the 立. ‧ 國. 學. result of the damage. The post-verb nominal 一個洞 yi2ge5 dong4 ‘one hole’ is. ‧. Extent in this sentence. The verb 唱 chang4 ‘sing’ in Sentence (10c) is an action. sit. y. Nat. verb. The post-verb NP 歌 ge1 ‘song’ is actually a cognate object, which is implied. n. al. er. io. by the verb 唱 chang4 ‘sing’. Consequently, the NP 歌 ge1 ‘song’ is Extent in this sentence.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. 2.2 Extent as an argument In previous studies, Extent has been categorized by quality extent and quantity extent (Halliday 1967, Teng 1985). Quantity extent is a measure element, such as ‘five games’ in the sentence ‘He played five games’. However, Teng (1985) noted that not all measure NPs are necessarily Extent. Some of them are adjuncts. Compare the.

(21) 11. following two sentences.. (11) He played five games. (12) He stayed five hours.. In Sentence (11), the measure nominal ‘five games’ is a complement of the verb, because it can become the subject as in the sentence ‘Five games were played by him’. However, the measure NP ‘five hours’ in Sentence (12) cannot become a subject. It is. 政治大. an adjunct rather than an argument. The issue as to which kind of measure element. 立. ‧ 國. 學. can be assigned the thematic role Extent actually involves a more basic but controversial topic. Can adjuncts or adverbs be assigned thematic roles? Dowty (1991). ‧. presented two sets of sentences to illustrate measure NPs as adjuncts and arguments,. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. which is Extent.. (13) a. I walked a mile.. Ch. engchi. b. I swam 30 meters. c. I slept twelve hours.. (14) a. This weighs five pounds. b. This piano measures 6’5’’. c. It took me an hour to grade the papers. d. The book cost me $5.. i Un. v.

(22) 12. The measure phrases in (13), ‘a mile’, ‘30 meters’, and ‘twelve hours’ are adjuncts since they function like adverbs. If they are deleted, the sentences are still grammatical. The measure NPs in (14), however, are subcatogrized arguments. If they are omitted, the sentences will become ungrammatical. Dowty argued that if the adjuncts in (13) can be assigned thematic roles just because they look like NPs in (14), how about other adverbs? If NPs in (13) cannot be. 政治大. assigned thematic roles, it seems that the assignment of thematic roles not only. 立. depends on semantic meaning, but it relies much more on syntactic forms. In this. ‧ 國. 學. thesis, we hold the view that the assignment of thematic roles depends on syntactic. ‧. forms so although NPs in a sentence all have semantic roles, only arguments can be. y. Nat. be assigned the thematic role Extent.. al. er. io. sit. assigned thematic roles. In the above sentences, only the measure elements in (14) can. n. iv n C h that In addition, Halliday (1967) noted e nsome h i Uelements are optional while g c Extent. others are obligatory. When the Extent is just nominalization of the verb, such as ‘a game’ in ‘He played a game,’ the Extent is optional in this case. In some sentences, the action or process entirely depends on the nominal elements. Take the following sentences for example.. (15) He had a bath. (16) He made a mistake..

(23) 13. In the above sentences, the action is expressed by the noun phrases ‘a bath’ and ‘a mistake’, and the verbs only specify that there is a process involved. Therefore, the Extent elements ‘a bath’ and ‘a mistake’ are obligatory. In this thesis, we investigate Extent as a thematic role. Therefore, in the remaining part of this thesis, Extent only refers to arguments.. 政治大. 2.2.1 Extent and Patient. 立. Teng (1975) compared the two thematic roles, Extent and Patient. He proposed. ‧ 國. 學. that one of the differences between them is that when they are complements of. ‧. process verbs, Extent is “effected” but Patient is “affected.” Two sentences are. y. Nat 一個. 洞. al. n. 破了. men2 po4le5. er. io. (17) 門. sit. presented to illustrate.. i n Cdong4 yi2ge5 U hengchi. v. Door break-ASP one-AN hole ‘The door got a hole in it.’ (18) 椅子. 壞了. 一隻. 腳. yi3zi5 huai4le5 yi4zhi1 jiao3 Chair. bad-ASP one-AN leg. ‘The chair has a broken leg.’ The two sentences both contain process verbs, but their complements are assigned.

(24) 14. different thematic roles. In Sentence (17), the thematic role of the NP 一個洞 yi2ge5 dong4 ‘a hole’ is Extent because it is the result of the verbal process and it is something “created.” Nevertheless, the NP in (18), 一隻腳 yi4zhi1jiao3 ‘one leg’ is Patient. The verbal process happened to the pre-existent object and it was “affected.” The difference is also reflected in syntactic structure. Teng presented the following sentences as illustration. (19) a. *一個 yi2ge5. 洞. 破了. dong4. po4le5. 政治大. 立. break-ASP. ‧ 國. 學. One-CL hole. ‘*A hole broke.’ 腳. ‧. b. 一隻. 壞了. y. Nat. io. bad-ASP. n. al. er. One-CL leg. sit. yi4zhi1 jiao3 huai4le5. ‘A leg is broken.’. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. The two sentences above show that Extent cannot undergo a change-of-state because it is already the result of the process verb. Patient, on the contrary, can go through a change of state. When it comes to action verbs, it is necessary for Patient to undergo a change of state, such as being created or disposed of. Take the following sentence for example. (20) 他蓋了 ta1 gai4le5. ㄧ棟. 房子. yi2dong4. fang2zi5.

(25) 15. He build-ASP one-CL. house. ‘He built a house.’ The verb 蓋 gai4 ‘build’ is an action verb, and the NP 房子 fang2zi5 ‘house’ goes through a process of creation from nonexistence to existence. It is therefore Patient rather than Extent. 洞. (21) a. *門的. 破了. men2de5 dong4. po4le5. Door’s hole. 政治大. break-ASP. 立. b. 椅子的. 腳. 學. ‧ 國. ‘*The door’s hole broke.’ 壞了. bad-ASP. sit. y. Nat. Chair’s leg. ‧. yi3zi5de5 jiao3 huai4le5. io. n. al. er. ‘The chair’s leg is broken.’. i Un. v. The sentences in (21) show that Extent cannot be genitivized, but Patient can. Since. Ch. engchi. the Extent 洞 dong4 ‘hole’ is not a pre-existing object, it cannot be possessed by 門 men2 ‘door’. (22) a. *他把. 洞. 打破了. ta1 ba3 dong4. da3po4le5. he. hit-break-ASP. BA hole. ‘*He broke the hole.’ b. 他把. 腳. 打壞了. ta1 ba2 jiao3 da3huai4 le5.

(26) 16. he BA leg. hit-bad-ASP. ‘He broke the leg.’ The above sentences show that Extent cannot occur in a ba-construction, which means that it cannot be executed. Teng further noted that Extent can be definite but that it cannot appear in a ba-construction. (23) a. 他唱了. 法國歌. ta1 chang4le5. fa4guo2ge1. he sing-ASP. France-song. 立. 政治大. b. *他把法國歌. 唱了. fa4guo2ge1. chang4le5. ‧. ta1 ba3. 學. ‧ 國. ‘He sang a French song.’. sit. y. Nat. he BA France-song sing-ASP. io. n. al. er. ‘*He sang the French song.’. i Un. v. In addition, Extent cannot appear in a pseudo-cleft construction when it is an. Ch. engchi. indefinite noun phrase (24). The focus has to be new information or contrastive. However, Extent is predictable because of its being a “cognate object.” (24) *他說. 的. ta1 shuo1 de5 he speak. 是話 shi4 hua4. m.p. be. speech. ‘*What he uttered was speech.’ Since Extent is regarded as a cognate object, there is a semantic shift from the specific.

(27) 17. to the general. The following sentences are ambiguous due to the potential differences on the interpretation of their complement NPs. (25) 他在. 吃. 飯. ta1 zai4 chi1 fan4 he. p.v. eat. rice. ‘He is eating.’ (26) 他不 ta1. 念. 書. 政治大 read book ASP 立. bu2 nian4. he Neg. 了. shu1 le5. ‧ 國. 學. ‘He stopped schooling.’. ‧. If 飯 fan4 has a general reference, which means ‘food’ or ‘meal’, the meaning of (25). sit. y. Nat. is simply ‘He is eating’. If 飯 fan4 has the specific interpretation ‘rice’, the sentence. n. al. er. io. means ‘He is eating rice’. Similarly, Sentence (26) can both mean ‘He stopped. Ch. i Un. v. schooling’ or ‘He stopped reading books’, depending on the general or specific. engchi. interpretation of the complement NP. Teng postulated that in general reading, the complement NP is Extent and in specific reading, the NP is Patient. In some cases fan4 can only have the general meaning ‘food’, while in some it can only have the specific meaning ‘rice’. (27) 我跟. 他. 吃過. 飯. wo3 gen1 ta1. chi1guo4. I. eat-EXP rice. with. he. fan4.

(28) 18. ‘I have dined with him before.’ In the above sentence, 飯 fan4 can only be Extent and have a general meaning. However, in the following sentences, the complement can only be Patient. (28) 飯他都. 吃了. fan4 ta1 dou1 chi le5 rice he all. eat. ASP. ‘He ate all the rice.’ (29) 他把. 飯. 都. 吃了. 立. 政治大. he BA rice all. eat. 學. ‧ 國. ta1 ba3 fan4 dou1 chi1 le5. ASP. ‘He ate up all the rice.’ 了. y. ta1 chi1. sit. fan4 dou1 bei4. 他吃. ‧. 被. Nat. (30) 飯都. le5. er. io. a lASP Ch ‘All the rice was eaten up by him.’ n. rice all p.p. he eat. (31) 他. 吃. 的. ta1. chi1 de5. he. eat. m.p.. 是. 飯. shi4. fan4. be. rice. engchi. i Un. v. ‘What he ate was rice.’ Since the NP 飯 fan4 can only have a Patient interpretation as ‘rice’ in the above sentences, it means that when 飯 fan4 ‘food’ is Extent, it cannot be “topicalized” (28). Sentence (29) again shows that Extent cannot be used in a ba-construction, which.

(29) 19. means it cannot be “accusativized.” It is also shown that fan4 ‘food’ as Extent cannot be “passivized” (30), nor “clefted” (31). To sum up, although Extent and Patient can both be complements of verbs, they have different semantic features. According to Teng (1975), the Patient is the object to which an event happens and it is “affected” by the verbal process. Extent, however, is “effected” of the verbal process, which means it is the result of the process. In. 政治大. addition, when it comes to indefinite noun phrases, Patient has a specific meaning and. 立. Extent has a general interpretation, owning to its property of being a cognate object.. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2.2 Extent and Theme. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Like Extent and Patient, Theme is also a thematic role which is often realized as the object of a verb. The distinction between Extent and Theme has been discussed by. al. n. iv n C h e n garec presented Dowty (1991). The following sentences h i U as illustration. (32) a. I paid $5(this amount) (?this $5-bill) for the book. b. The book cost me $5(?this amount) (＃this $5-bill) c. I bought the book for $5(this amount) (＃this $5-bill) d. I paid for the book with?$5(＃this amount) (this $5-bill) e. I bought the book with?$5(＃this amount) (this $5-bill). As mentioned before, Extent is a measure element, and it can be a measurement of.

(30) 20. quantity (i.e., quantity extent). In the above sentences, $5 is an amount used to measure money or value, and therefore its thematic role is Extent. Theme, however, is a concrete object. In the above cases, a $5-bill is a piece of paper worth 5 dollars so its thematic role is Theme. In (32a), $5 is better regarded as an amount of money (Extent). In (32b) and (32c), it can only be considered as Extent, while in (32d) and (32e), it can only have the interpretation of concrete paper money (Theme).. 政治大. According to previous studies, Extent is a circumstantial role, whose reference. 立. does not really participate in the verbal process but rather forms part of the setting for. ‧ 國. 學. the verb. It can be regarded as a cognate object since it can be implied by the verb.. ‧. Due to this reason, the meaning of Extent can entail a semantic shift from the specific. y. Nat. er. io. sit. to the general. This also makes a distinction between Extent and Patient because Extent has a general interpretation, but Patient has a specific interpretation. In. al. n. iv n C U means that Extent is the h eis ‘affected’, addition, Extent is ‘effected’ but Patient n g c h iwhich. effect of the verbal process, but that Patient is the object which undergoes the process or event. Extent can be further categorized into quantity extent and quality extent. Quality extent specifies the verb with types, while quantity extent adds specification with measure elements. One difference between Extent and Theme is that Theme is a concrete object, but Extent can be a measure amount. Extent in Mandarin Chinese has been proposed to have the syntactic features that it cannot be genitivized, executed, or.

(31) 21. clefted.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(32) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(33) Chapter 3 Extent in Mandarin Chinese. 3.1 Number expression as Extent In Mandarin Chinese, indefinite number phrases with the form [Number + Classifier + Noun] have two interpretations. One concerns quantity and the other refers to concrete references, someone or something (Li 1998). It was suggested by Li. 政治大. that number expression be divided into two categories, which are number expression a. quantity. 立. interpretation. and. that. with. a. nonquantity. indefinite. 學. ‧ 國. with. individual-denoting interpretation. The former can occur in the subject and topic. ‧. 學生. 在. 學校. 受傷了. io. sit. Nat. (33) *三個. y. position but the latter cannot do so.. n. al. er. san3ge5 xue2sheng1 zai4 xue2xiao4 shou4shang1 le5 Three-CL student. Cath. school. i Un. v. hurt-ASP. engchi. ‘*Three students were hurt at school.’ (34) 五個. 小孩. 吃不完. 十碗. 飯. wu3ge5 xiao3hai2 chi1bu4wan2 shi2wan3 fan4 Five-CL child. eat-not-finish ten-bowl rice. ‘Five children cannot finish ten bowls of rice.’ The number expressions in the above two sentences are both indefinite, but (33) is ungrammatical because the NP 三個學生 san3ge5 xue2sheng1 ‘three students’ in. 23.

(34) 24. (33) should refer to three individuals, who have been hurt at school. That is to say, the NP has a nonquantity indefinite individual-denoting interpretation. It cannot be in the subject position and it needs the existential marker 有 you3 ‘have, exist’ to make the sentence acceptable. (35) 有. 三個. you3 san3ge5. 學生. 在. 學校. xue2sheng1 zai4. Have three-CL student. at. 受傷了. xue2xiao4 shou4shang1le5 school. hurt-ASP. 政治大. ‘There are three students hurt at school.’. 立. ‧ 國. 學. It is obvious that the two number expressions 三個學生 san3ge5 xue2sheng1 ‘three students’ and 五個小孩 wu3ge5 xiao3hai2 ‘five children’ are assigned different. ‧. thematic roles. The former 三個學生 san3ge5 xue2sheng1 ‘three students’ have. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. specific references and they undergo a change of state. In addition, in terms of the. i Un. v. verb 受傷 shou4shang1 ‘hurt’, the three students are people who are “affected” so it. Ch. engchi. is reasonable to regard this number expression as Patient. The other number expression 五個小孩 wu3ge5 xiao3hai2 ‘five children’ is the Agent of the verb 吃 chi1 ‘eat’, but it does not have a specific reference. It is a quantity expression and can also be considered as a measure element as noted in the previous section. According to previous literature, the NP 五個小孩 wu3ge5 xiao3hai2 ‘five children’ can also be categorized as quantity extent and be assigned the thematic role Extent. Therefore, the number phrase can be regarded as a composite role of Agent and Extent..

(35) 25. Her (2009) proposed that in Mandarin Chinese, sentences containing consumption verbs, such as 吃 chi1 ‘eat’, and accommodation verbs, such as 住 zhu4 ‘live’ are allowed with subject-object inversion when the subject is a composite role of Agent and Extent. The following sentences are presented by Her as illustration. (36) a. 他們 / 張三. 和李四. 吃. 這. 鍋. 肉. ta1men5/Zhang1san1 han4 Li3si4 chi1 zhe4. guo1 rou4. They / John. pot meat. and Lee eat this. 政治大. ‘They/ John and Lee eat this pot of meat.’ 肉. 立吃張三. 和. 李四 / 他們. 學. ‧ 國. b. *這鍋. zhe4 guo1 rou4 chi1 Zhang1san1 han4 Li3si4/ta1men5 John. and Lee / they. ‧. this pot meat eat. sit. y. Nat. ‘This pot of meat feeds/serves John and Lee/Them.’. n. al. er. io. In Sentence (36), the subject has specific references. The pronoun ‘they’ refers to. Ch. i Un. v. certain people, and ‘John and Lee’ refers to two people named John and Lee. The. engchi. subject therefore can only be assigned Agent. According to Her (2009), a subject that only has the thematic role Agent cannot invert with an object. Sentence (36b) shows that it is unacceptable when there is inversion of subject and object. (37) a. 兩個. 人. liang3ge5 ren2. 吃. ㄧ. 磅. 肉. chi1 yi2 bang4 rou4. Two-CL person eat one pound meat ‘Two people eat one pound of meat.’.

(36) 26. b. ㄧ磅. 肉. 吃. 兩個. 人. yi2 bang4 rou4 chi1 liang3ge5 ren2 one pound meat eat. two-CL person. ‘One pound of meat feeds/serves two people.’ In Sentence (37), there is subject-object inversion and the inverted sentence (37b) is acceptable. Her (2009) proposed that it is because the subject 兩個人 liang3ge5ren2 ‘two people’ is not only the Agent of the verb but also contains the interpretation of. 政治大. Extent. It is also an indefinite number phrase and the same as what was described by. 立. Li as quantity interpretation. Therefore, it is also reasonable to assign it the thematic. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. role Extent.. On the basis of the arguments of Li (1998) and Her (2009), we can find that in. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Mandarin Chinese there is one type of Extent composed of indefinite number phrases.. al. v. n. Some of them may be composite roles, or at least, they are roles with extent. Ch. interpretation. (38) 十個 shi2ge5. 蘋果. 裝. engchi. ㄧ盒. ping2guo3 zhuang1 yi4 he2. Ten-CL apple. pack. one box. ‘Ten apples pack into one box.’ (39) 三個. 人. 擠. san3ge5 ren2 ji3. 這張. 床. zhe4 zhang1 chuang2. Three-CL person crowd this-CL. bed. i Un.

(37) 27. ‘Three people crowd into this bed. ’ In Sentence (38), in terms of the verb 裝 zhuang1 ‘pack’, the NP ㄧ盒 yi4he2 ‘one box’ is “effected”, which means it is not a pre-existent object and it is the result of the action. Therefore, the NP ㄧ盒 yi4he2 ‘one box’ can be regarded as Extent. The other NP 十個蘋果 shi2ge5 ping2guo3 ‘ten apples’ also has the feature of quantity extent. In addition, it is also the Theme of the verb since it participates in the action.. 政治大. Therefore, the NP 十個蘋果 shi2ge5 ping2guo3 ‘ten apples’ can be considered as a. 立. Theme with extent interpretation. In Sentence (39), the number expression 三個人. ‧ 國. 學. san3ge5ren2 ‘three people’ is the Agent of the verb 擠 ji3 ‘crowd’ but it also has the. Nat 3.2 Duration as Extent. al. er. io. sit. y. ‧. interpretation of Extent.. n. iv n C Jackson (1990) noted thaththe e ncircumstantial g c h i Urole, which provides the setting of. a proposition, often concerns place or time. The semantic role which is related to time is labeled TEMPORAL, and there are three kinds of circumstances of time: position, frequency, and duration. Duration concerns the measurement of time and it is used to answer the question ‘How long’, ‘Until when’, and ‘Since when’. The following sentences are presented as examples of duration.. (40) a. He was ill for three days..

(38) 28. b. Julian had acted very strangely since the tragedy. c. It would probably last until the evening.. In Sentence (40a), ‘three days’ is to answer ‘how long’, ‘the tragedy’ in (40b) is to answer ‘since when’, and ‘the evening’ in (40c) is to answer ‘until when’. They are all duration and have similar notion with Extent, which is also measure element. According to Jackson’s definition of duration, duration can be qualified as one kind of. 政治大. Extent. In Mandarin Chinese, there are also measure elements expressing duration.. 立. 飯. 吃了. 三. 學. (41) a. ㄧ頓. 小時. ‧. ‧ 國. The following sentences are presented as examples.. yi2dun4 fan4 chi1le5 san3 xiao3shi2. Nat. y. eat-ASP three hour. sit. One-CL meal. er. io. ‘The meal lasted for three hours.’. al. n. b. ㄧ包. 菸. yi4bao1 yan1. ni Ch 三天 U engchi chou1le5 san1tian1. 抽了. v. One-CL cigarette smoke-ASP three day ‘The pack of cigarettes was smoked for three days.’ c. ㄧ本. 書. 寫了. 三. 年. yi4ben3 shu1. xie3le5. san1 nian2. One-CL book. write-ASP three year. ‘The book was written for three years.’ The three post-verbal NPs, 三小時 san3xiao3shi2 ‘three hours’, 三天 san1tian1.

(39) 29. ‘three days’ and 三年. san1nian2 ‘three years’, are all measure elements,. measurement of time. The three NPs are the same as the duration in (40a), which is used to answer the question ‘How long’ and to specify duration of the verbal process. However, only when duration is an argument can it be assigned the thematic role Extent. Compare the following sentences. (42) a. ㄧ頓. 飯. 吃了. 三. yi2dun4 fan4 chi1le5. 小時. san3 xiao3shi2. 飯. 吃了. ‧. chi1le5. Nat. One-CL meal. eat-ASP. y. yi2dun4 fan4. sit. b. *ㄧ頓. 學. ‧ 國. 治政 One-CL meal eat-ASP three hour 大立 ‘The meal lasted for three hours.’. al. n (43) a. 他住. 台北. er. io. ‘*The meal lasted.’. ni C h年 U engchi. 九. v. ta1 zhu4 tai2bei3 jiu3 nian2 He live. Taipei nine year. ‘He has lived in Taipei for nine years.’ b. 他. 住. 台北. ta1 zhu4 tai2bei3 He live. Taipei. ‘He lives in Taipei.’ The two sentences show that time measurement 九年 jiu3 nian2 ‘nine years’ in (43a).

(40) 30. is an adjunct because the deletion of it does not make the sentence ungrammatical in (43b). In (42a), however, the measure element 三小時 san3xiao3shi2 ‘three hours’ is an argument since its deletion will make the sentence unacceptable (42b). Now that the duration 三小時 san3xiao3shi2 ‘three hours’ can be an argument, it has to be assigned a thematic role by the verb. The NP san3xiao3shi2 ‘three hours’ does not participate in the action of the verb 吃 chi1 ‘eat’ and its function is to form setting of. 政治大. the verbal process, so it is duration of the verb. Since it is not a participant of the. 立. action, its thematic role cannot be Agent, Patient or Theme. Because it does not have a. ‧ 國. 學. specific reference, and it is just amount of time, according to above analysis, the NP. ‧. san3xiao3shi2 ‘three hours’ can be assigned as Extent. The three duration phrases in. y. Nat. er. io. sit. (41), san3xiao3shi2 ‘three hours’ in (41a), san1tian1 ‘three days’ in (41b) and san1nian2 ‘three years’ in (41c) can all be assigned as Extent. Therefore, in Mandarin. n. al. i n C U h eofnExtent. Chinese, post-verbal durations form a kind gchi. v. In the three sentences in (41), the subjects are Theme and the objects are Extent. Concerning the verbs, 吃 chi1 ‘eat’, 抽 chou1 ‘smoke’, and 寫 xie3 ‘write’, they are action verbs, which need agents to initiate the action. It is reasonable for them to have Agent as one argument, as presented in (44). If the verbs assign Agent and Theme as arguments, the Agent is in the subject position and the Theme is in the object position..

(41) 31. (44) a. 他吃了. 一頓. ta1 chile5. 飯. yi2dun4 fan4. He eat-ASP one-CL meal ‘He ate a meal.’ b. 他. 抽了. ㄧ包. ta1 chou1le5. 菸. yi4bao1 yan1. He smoke-ASP one-CL cigarette ‘He smoked a pack of cigarettes.’ c. 他. 寫了. ㄧ本. 立. yi4ben3. shu1. 學. ‧ 國. ta1 xie3le5. 政書治大. He write-ASP one-CL book ‘He wrote a book.’. ‧ sit. y. Nat. It seems that the verbs 吃 chi1 ‘eat’, 抽 chou1 ‘smoke’, and 寫 xie3 ‘write’ have. n. al. er. io. the ability to assign three thematic roles, but only two of them can occur in the same. Ch. i Un. v. sentence. Take the verb 抽 chou1 ‘smoke’ for example. (45) a. ㄧ包. 菸. yi4bao1 yan1. engchi. 抽了. 三天. chou1le5. san1tian1. One-CL cigarette smoke-ASP three day ‘The pack of cigarettes was smoked for three days.’ b. 他. 抽了. ta1 chou1le5. ㄧ包. 菸. yi4bao1 yan1. He smoke-ASP one-CL cigarette ‘He smoked a pack of cigarettes.’.

(42) 32. c. 他. 抽了. 三. ta1 chou1le5. 天. san1 tian1. He smoke-ASP three day ‘He smoked for three days.’ d. *他. 抽了. 一包. ta1 chou1le5. 菸. 三. 天. yi4bao1 yan1 san1 tian1. He smoke-ASP one-CL cigarette three day ‘*He smoked a pack of cigarettes for three days.’. 政治大. In (45a), the verb only takes Theme and Extent. In (45b), there are Agent and Theme.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. In (45c), only Agent and Extent appear in the sentence. Example (45d) is unacceptable in Mandarin Chinese since it is not allowed for the verb to have two. ‧. complements, according to Postverbal Constraint. A correct formation will be as in. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. (46) or (47). (46) 他抽. 一包. 菸. Ch. 抽了. ta1 chou1 yi4bao1 yan1. 三天. engchi. chou1le5. i Un. v. san1 tian1. He smoke one-CL cigarette smoke-ASP three day ‘He has smoked a pack of cigarettes for three days.’ (47) 他一包. 菸. ta1 yi4bao1 yan1. 抽了. 三. 天. chou1le5. san1 tian1. He one-CL cigarette smoke-ASP three day ‘It took him three days to smoke a pack of cigarettes.’ In (46), there are two sentences combined together. The two sentences are 他抽一包.

(43) 33. 菸 ta1 chou1 yi4bao1 yan1 ‘He smoked a pack of cigarettes.’ and 他抽了三天 ta1 chou1le5 san1 tian1 ‘He smoked for three days’. Because the two subjects are the same, the second 他 ta1 ‘he’ is deleted. In (47), the Agent 他 ta1 ‘he’ becomes the topic of the sentence. Therefore, the verb only assigns two arguments, which are 一包菸 yi4bao1 yan1 ‘a pack of cigarettes’ and 三天 san1tian1 ‘three days’ . In both sentences, there is only one complement after a verb form. Although there are two. 政治大. complements in Sentence (46), each verb only has one object. As shown in the above. 立. two sentences, the way for the three thematic roles, Agent , Theme, and Extent, to. ‧ 國. 學. appear in the same sentence is to repeat the verb or to topicalize one of the roles. This. ‧. is due to the well accepted assumption that a Mandarin verb may be followed by only. y. Nat. er. io. sit. one constituent and the assumption is generally termed as Postverbal Constraint. If there is one more constituent, other than the direct object, following the verb, the. al. n. iv n C direct object is moved out of itshpostverbal e n g cposition. h i U Sometimes, the forced out object is topicalized and sometimes it leads to reduplication of the verb (Sybesma 1999). However, the following sentences are acceptable in Mandarin Chinese. (48) a. ㄧ頓. 飯. 吃了. 他. 三. 小時. yi2dun4 fan4 chi1le5 ta1 san1 xiao3shi2 One-CL meal eat-ASP he three. hour. ‘It took him three hours to eat a meal.’ b. ㄧ包. 菸. 抽了. 他. 三. 天.

(44) 34. yi4bao1 yan1. chou1le5. ta1 san1 tian1. One-CL cigarette smoke-ASP he three day ‘It took him three days to smoke a pack of cigarettes.’ c. ㄧ本. 書. 寫了. 他. yi4ben3 shu1 xie3le5. 三. 年. ta1 san1 nian2. One-CL book write-ASP he three years ‘It took him three years to write a book.’ The above sentences are marked in Mandarin Chinese for two reasons. The first one is. 政治大 that there are two complements after the verb. The second one is that the Agent is in 立. ‧ 國. ‧. io. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. between verb types.. 學. the object position. In the following section, we will explain the sentences by analogy. Ch. engchi. i Un. v.

(45) Chapter 4 Analogy between Action Verbs and Psychological Verbs. 4.1 Verb types of the sentence structure 4.1.1 Verb classification of Jackson (1990) The meanings of verbs refer to different kinds of situations. There are three kinds of situations: state, event, and action (Jackson, 1990). The type of verb. 政治大. represents the type of situation. Therefore, the verbs can also be divided into state,. 立. event, and action verbs. States refer to the condition people or things are in, the way. ‧ 國. 學. they are or what they are like. The following sentences are examples of state verbs.. ‧. (49) a. It was a quiet place.. y. Nat. n. al. er. io c. I don’t like the risk.. sit. b. Andrea knew that it was purposeless to say.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. In (49a), the verb ‘be’ predicates a characteristic of the subject. The verb ‘know’ in (49b) describes an intellectual state, and ‘like’ in (49c) expresses a state of emotion. They are all regarded as state verbs. The second situation type refers to events, which mean things that happen. There are no agents involved. Events occur without being initiated by anyone. The following sentences are examples of events.. 35.

(46) 36. (50) a. The general condition and appetite improved. b. The steering wheel hit his chest. c. I arrived at the Oldham Empire with the gang.. In (50a), the verb ‘improve’ expresses a change of state from a worse state to a better one within some amount of time. This change is regarded as a process within a period of time. The verb ‘hit’ in (50b) illustrates a momentary event, which means an event. 政治大. that takes place in a moment of time. In (50c), the verb ‘arrive’ predicates a. 立. transitional event. It also takes place in a moment of time. In addition, it involves a. ‧ 國. 學. change of state from not being in one place to being in it.. ‧. The third situation type is action. Unlike events, actions do not happen spontaneously.. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. They need animate agents or instigators to initiate the action. Examples of action. n. verbs are presented as follows.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. (51) a. She sang in clubs and in concerts.. b. In 1991 Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood group system. c. He kicked the razor clear. d. He began his research.. The four examples illustrate the four kinds of action. The verb ‘sing’ in (51a) expresses an action called activity. This kind of action involves a person doing.

(47) 37. something. Activity is regarded as durative because it usually lasts a period of time. However, there is no implication as to the achievement or result. In (51b), the verb ‘discover’ illustrates a kind of action called accomplishment. It refers to a person taking the action with result or achievement, which means it is “conclusive”. Accomplishment also takes place through a period of time and it is also durative. The third type of action is presented in (51c) with the verb ‘kick’. It is called a momentary. 政治大. act. Someone performs the action in a moment of time. It is punctual and it is. 立. non-conclusive, which means it has no result. The last type of action is illustrated by. ‧ 國. 學. the verb ‘begin’ in (51d). It is called a transitional act. It is also punctual and it implies. ‧. a result or achievement. Jackson (1990) used the features conclusive, non-conclusive,. y. Nat. al. er. io. sit. durative and punctual to distinguish the four kinds of action, presented as follows.. n. (52) Four types of action verbs. Ch. engchi. Durative. i Un. v. Punctual. Non-conclusive. Activity. Momentary act. Conclusive. Accomplishment. Transitional act. According to the verb types in this section, the three verbs 吃 chi1 ‘eat’, 抽 chou1 ‘smoke’, and 寫 xie3 ‘write’ belong to activity verbs since they all need agents, such as human beings, to initiate the action of eating, smoking and writing. In addition, they are durative since the action can last a period of time, and this is.

(48) 38. consistent with the syntactic fact that they can take duration as an argument. According to this classification of verbs, activity verbs and accomplishment verbs are both durative. The following example shows that accomplishment verb can also take duration as an argument. In addition, the sentence is also involved of violation of thematic hierarchy, with the Theme, ㄧ棟房子 yi2dong4 fang2zi5 ‘one house’, in the subject position and the Agent, 他 ta1 ‘he’, in the object position. (53) ㄧ棟房子蓋了他兩年. 立. yi2dong4 fang2zi5 gai4le5. ‧ 國. build-ASP he two year. 學. One-CL house. 政治大 ta1 liang3 nian2. ‘It took him two years to build a house.’. ‧ sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. 4.1.2 Verb classification of Vendler (1957). i Un. v. Vendler (1957) proposed that the use of verbs may imply some notion about. Ch. engchi. time and this proposal can be reflected by the fact that verbs have tenses. Although the differences between verbs involve many factors, including the presence or absence of an object, conditions, and intended states of affairs, the time element is crucial. Vendler classified English verbs based on their presuppositions about time and their usage with tense. First, Vendler classified English verbs into two types, verbs which can possess continuous tenses and verbs which cannot do so. For example, ‘I am running’ is grammatical but ‘I am knowing’ is ungrammatical. Verbs like ‘running’,.

(49) 39. and ‘writing’ are a process which is going on and on for a period of time, but verbs like ‘knowing’ are not. Verbs which can have continuous tenses were further subcategorized into activity terms and accomplishment terms. Activity terms, such as ‘running’ or ‘pushing a cart’ do not imply how long the action is going to last, which means that there is no assumption of an end point. However, accomplishment terms, such as ‘drawing a circle’ or ‘running a mile’ imply that there is a terminal point. This. 政治大. statement can be proven by certain questions. For instance, ‘How long did he push the. 立. cart?’ is appropriate, but ‘How long did it take to push the cart?’ sounds odd. However,. ‧ 國. 學. ‘How long did he draw the circle?’ is odd, but ‘How long did it take to draw the. ‧. circle?’ is appropriate. Verbs which cannot possess continuous tenses were. y. Nat. er. io. sit. subcategorized into achievement terms and state terms. Achievement terms can be predicated for single moments of time, such as ‘reach the hilltop’, ‘win the game’, and. al. n. iv n C h e nof gachievement These actions c h i U terms. ‘recognize something’.. happen at a definite. moment rather than a period of time. On the other hand, state terms, such as ‘know something’ or ‘love someone’ can last a period of time but they are not processes or actions that would keep going on. According to Vendler’s classification, sentences in (48) belong to accomplishment terms and it seems that not all the verbs can have the sentence structure like (48). Examples with the four kinds of verbs are presented as follows..

(50) 40. (54). a. 他踢了. ㄧ顆. ta1 ti1le5 he. 球. yi4ke1 qiu2. kick-ASP one-CL ball. ‘He kicked a ball.’ b. ㄧ顆. 球. 踢了. 他. yi4ke1 qiu2 ti1le5 one-CL ball. 三. 分鐘. ta1 san1 fen1zhong1. kick-ASP he. three. minute. ‘He has kicked a ball for three minutes.’ a. 他 ta1. 政操場治大. 跑了. ㄧ圈. pao3le5. yi4quan1. 立. cao1chang3. He run-ASP one-CL. 學. ‧ 國. (55). playground. ‘He ran one circuit of the track.’ 跑了. 分鐘. run-ASP he. minute. ㄧ場. 比賽. al. one-CL playground. ten. er. fen1zhong1. io. pao3le5 ta1 shi2. n. yi4quan1 cao1chang3. sit. y. 他十. ‧. 操場. Nat. b. ㄧ圈. iv n C ‘It took him ten minutes to circuit of the tract.’ h run e na g chi U (56). a. 他贏了. ta1 ying2le5 yi4chang3 bi3sai4 He win-ASP one-CL. competition. ‘He won a competition.’ b. *ㄧ場. 比賽. yi4chang3 bi3sai4. 贏了. 他. 半. 小時. ying2le5 ta1 ban4 xiao3shi2. one-CL competition win-ASP he. half. hour. ‘*He has won the competition for three hours.’.

(51) 41. (57). a. 他知道了 ta1 zhi1dao4le5 He. 一件. 事情. yi2jian4. shi4qing2. know-ASP one-CL. thing. ‘He knew one thing.’ b. *ㄧ件. 事情. 知道了. 他一年. yi2jian4 shi4qing2 zhi1dao4le5 ta1 yi4 nian2 one-CL thing. know-ASP he one year. ‘* It took him one year to know one thing.’. 政治大. Sentence (54a) contains an activity term 踢一顆球 ti1 yi4ke1qiu2 ‘kick a ball’, since. 立. ‧ 國. 學. the action of kicking a ball keeps going on for a period of time and the action does not imply an end point. As shown in (54b), the activity term can have a sentence structure. ‧. with subject-object inversion and with duration as an argument. Although (54b) may. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. sound odd, it could be appropriate in the context, such as ㄧ顆球踢了他三分鐘還踢. i Un. v. 不膩 yi4ke1qiu2 ti1le5 ta1 san1fen1zhong1 hai2 ti1 bu2 ni4 ‘He has been kicking the. Ch. engchi. ball for three minutes and he is still not tired of it’. Sentence (55a) contains an accomplishment term 跑一圈操場 pao3le5 yi4quan1cao1chang3 ‘run a circuit of the track’, because the action implies that there is a terminal point, and as shown in (55b), the accomplishment term can also have the sentence structure with the Theme in the subject position and with the Agent as well as duration as the two complements. Sentence (56a) represents an achievement term because 嬴了ㄧ場比賽 ying2le5 yi4chang3 bi3sai4 ‘wins a competition’ is a momentary event. The action described.

(52) 42. by an achievement term happens at a single moment but sentence (56b) has the meaning that he keeps winning the competition for the half hour and this is contradicted by the inherent meaning of the term ‘wins a competition’. Therefore, sentence (56b) is ungrammatical. In sentence (57a), there is a state term 知道了ㄧ件事情 zhi1dao4le5 yi2jian4 shi4qing2 ‘know one thing’, and as shown by (57b), it is also ungrammatical to use a state term in such a sentence construction. According to. 政治大. Jackson (1990) and Vendler (1957)’s classification, there is a consistent result, which. 立. is that only activity terms and accomplishment terms can have the construction with. ‧ 國. 學. Theme in the subject position and two complements, Experiencer and Extent, after the. ‧. verbs, such as (54b) and (55b).. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat 4.2 Subject NP of the sentence structure. n. iv n C U of noun phrase as an object, h e ndifferent Sybesma (1999) noted that given g c h itypes. duration can be placed before or after the object in a sentence. Five types of noun phrases are listed to illustrate, which are dummy NPs, bare NPs, NPs overtly marked for definiteness (defNPs), NPs overtly marked for indefiniteness (indefNPs), and pronouns. The first kind of distribution is termed as that of V-Obj-Dur-sentences. Examples are presented as follows with the five kinds of NPs. (58). a. 我. 吃飯. 兩個. 小時. 了 (dummy object).

(53) 43. wo3 chi1fan4 liang2ge5 xiao3shi2 le5 I. eat-food. two-CL hour. LE. ‘I have been eating for two hours.’ b. 我吃. 土豆. 兩個. 小時. 了 (bare NP object). Wo3 chi1 tu3dou4 liang2ge5 xiao3shi2 le5 I eat potato. two-CL hour. LE. ‘I have been eating potatoes for two hours.’ c. 我. 看. 這個. 電影. 兩個. 小時. 了 (defNP object). 政治大. wo3 kan4 zhe4ge5 dian4ying3 liang2ge5 xiao3shi2 le5. 立. two-CL. hour. LE. ‘I have been watching this movie for two hours.’ 打他. 兩個. 小時. 了 (pronominal object). ‧. d. 我. 學. ‧ 國. I look this-CL movie. io. y. al. sit. beat him two-CL hour. LE. er. I. Nat. wo3 da3 ta1 liang3ge5 xiao3shi2 le5. n. ‘I have been beating him for two hours.’ e. *我打. 一個. 人. Ch. wo3 da3 yi2ge5 ren2. e n g c小時 hi. 兩個. i Un. v. 了 (indefNP object). liang3ge5 xiao3shi2 le. I beat one-CL person two-CL hour. LE. ‘*I have been beating one person for two hours.’ The second kind of sentence pattern are referred to as that of V-Dur-Obj-sentences, presented as follows. (59). a. 我吃了. 兩個. 小時. 飯. 了 (dummy object). wo3 chi1le5 liang2ge5 xiao3shi2 fan4 le5.

(54) 44. I eat-ASP. two-CL hour food LE. ‘I have been eating for two hours.’ b. 我. 吃了. 兩個. 小時. 土豆. 了 (bare NP object). wo3 chi1le5 liang2ge5 xiao3shi2. tu3dou4 le5. I. poato. eat-ASP two-CL hour. LE. ‘I have been eating potatoes for two hours.’ c. *我看了. 兩個. wo3 kan4le5 I. 小時. 這個. 電影. 了 (defNP object). liang2ge5 xiao3shi2 zhe4ge5 dian4ying3 le5. 政hour 治this-CL大movie. look-ASP two-CL. 立. LE. liang3ge5 xiao3shi2. beat-ASP two-CL hour. 他. (pronoun object). ta1 him. y. Nat. I. 小時. ‧. wo3 da3le5. 兩個. sit. d. *我打了. 學. ‧ 國. ‘*I have been watching this movie for two hours.’. io 打了. al. n. e. *我. 兩個. 小時. Ch. 一個. engchi. er. ‘*I have been beating him for two hours.’. i Un. v. 人 (indefNP object). wo3 da3le5 liang3ge5 xiao3shi2 yi2ge5 ren2 I. beat-ASP one-CL person. two-CL hour. ‘*I have been beating one person for two hours.’ When the duration precedes the object, the element 的 de can be inserted between the duration phrase and the object, but only for dummy and bare NPs. Sybesma (1999) concluded that basically there are three sentence patterns where a durative. expression. can. appear. postverbally.. The. first. one. is. called.

(55) 45. V-Obj-Dur-sentence where the duration phrase is following the object, and only indNP cannot occur in this kind of sentence. The second pattern is called V-Dur-Obj-sentence, where pronoun, defNP, and indefNP are not allowed to occur. The third kind is the order with duration preceding the object and with the element de inserted between them. Only dummy NPs and bare NPs can occur in the third sentence pattern.. 政治大. Concerning the different types of noun phrases, three kinds of noun phrases can. 立. a. 這本. 書. 寫了. 他三. 年. ta1 san1nian2. ‧. zhe4ben3 shu1 xie3le5. 學 sit. y. Nat. This-CL book write-ASP him three year ‘It took him three years to write this book.’. io 書. al. n. b. ㄧ本. 寫了. 他三. Ch. yi4ben3 shu1 xie3le5. 年. engchi. ta1 san1nian2. one-CL book write-ASP him three year ‘It took him three years to write one book.’ c. 它. 寫了. ta1 xie3le5 it. 他三. 年. ta1 san1 nian2. write-ASP him three year. ‘It took him three years to write it.’ d. *書. 寫了. shu1 xie3le5. 他. 三. 年. ta1 san1 nian2. er. (60). ‧ 國. occur as Theme in the construction discussed in this thesis, as illustrated below.. i Un. v.

(56) 46. book write-ASP him three year ‘*It took him three years to write books.’ The definite NP (60a), indefinite NP (60b) and pronoun (60c) can occur as the subject in such sentence structure, while the bare NP (60d) cannot do so. The three kinds of NP display the feature of incremental theme proposed by Dowty (1991). Huang, Li & Li (2009) illustrated the concept of incremental theme in Chinese with the following example. (61). a. 吃. 政治大. 立. 蘋果. ‧ 國. eat. 學. chi1 ping2guo3 apple. ‧. ‘eat apples’. y. sit. io. chi1 yi2ge5. 蘋果. ping2guo3. n. al. er. ㄧ個. Nat. b. 吃. eat. one-CL apple. Ch. ‘eat an apple’ c. 吃. ㄧ筐. engchi. i Un. v. 蘋果. chi1 yi4 kuang1 ping2guo3 eat. one-CL apple. ‘eat a basket of apples’ Incremental theme concerns not only the verb, but also the semantic features of the noun phrases because the verb in the above sentence is the same but the noun phrases.

(57) 47. are different. In (61b), the noun phrase is an indefinite NP, and it can be used to measure the progress of the apple-eating event. Because an apple has a physical boundary itself, the NP ㄧ個蘋果 yi2ge5 ping2guo3 ‘an apple’ can set the beginning and the end for the progress of the apple-eating event, evaluating how much the progress is accomplished. Therefore, the NP ㄧ個蘋果 yi2ge5 ping2guo3 ‘an apple’ is an incremental theme in this sentence. In (61c), the NP ㄧ筐蘋果 yi4 kuang1. 政治大. ping2guo3 ‘a basket of apples’ also provides a way to measure the event and thus an. 立. incremental theme. However, the bare NP 蘋果 ping2guo3 ‘apple’ in (61a) is generic,. ‧ 國. 學. which can be singular or plural, so it cannot provide any measurement for the event of. ‧. apple-eating.. y. Nat. er. io. sit. In sentence (60), the defNP (60a), indefNP (60b), and pronoun (60c) can be considered as Incremental Theme because they set boundaries for the event, while the. n. al. generic NP in (60d), which. iv n C is h note an n gincremental c h i U theme,. cannot provide any. measurement of the event. The fact that Incremental Theme can occur in this construction as the subject is consistent with the discussion in the previous section that accomplishment terms can be constructed in such a way because the object in an accomplishment event is an incremental theme. It can be concluded, based on the analysis of verb types and noun phrases of the subject, that only activity and accomplishment verbs can occur in such a construction and the subject NP has to be.

(58) 48. an indef NP, def NP, or pronoun.. 4.3 Additional meaning with the sentence structure As noted in the previous section, activity and accomplishment verbs can have a special sentence structure such as follows. (62) a. ㄧ圈. 操場. 跑了. 他十. 分鐘. yi4 quan1 cao1chang3 pao3le5 ta1 shi2 fen1zhong1 one-CL playground. 立. 治政 run-ASP him ten minute 大. ‘It took him ten minutes to run one circuit of the track.’. ‧ 國. 學. Also noted in the early section, due to the Postverbal Constraint in Mandarin Chinese,. ‧. there cannot be more than one constituent after the verb. If there are two complements. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. after the verb, the verb will be reduplicated such as in the following sentence. b. 他. 跑. 一圈. Ch. 操場. 跑了. engchi. ta1 pao3 yi4quan1 cao1chang3 pao3le5 he. run one-CL playground. iv 分鐘 n U. 十. shi2 fen1zhong1. run-ASP ten. minute. ‘He ran one circuit of the track for ten minutes.’ Although the meaning of the two sentences is almost the same, there is additional meaning in sentence (62a). The person 他 ta1 ‘he’, who has run around the track once, plays different roles in each sentence. In (62b) the person initiates the action of running out of his own volition so the thematic role of 他 ta1 ‘he’ in this sentence is.

(59) 49. without doubt that of an Agent, with the feature [volition]. In sentence (62a), the person 他 ta1 ‘he’ also runs around the track once, but the emphasis is not on the fact that he does this action but on the effect which this event has had on the person. In this sentence, he is more like a person who experiences this event or who is affected by this event. Therefore, the thematic role of the pronoun 他 ta1 ‘he’ is probably not an Agent in Sentence (62a). In addition, there is causative meaning in a construction. 政治大. such as Sentence (62a). The subject ㄧ圈操場 yi4quan1 cao1chang3 ‘one circuit of. 立. the track’ is the cause which leads the person to run for ten minutes. Sentence (62b),. ‧ 國. 學. however, has no causative meaning, and it is just a description that a person ran one. Nat. y. ‧. circuit of the track and that he ran for ten minutes.. er. io. sit. Activity and accomplishment terms need the Agent as an argument to initiate the action and the Agent is normally in the subject position. However, in the sentence. al. n. iv n C h ethe structure of (48), repeated here as (63), n gAgent c hisi inUthe object position. (63) ㄧ本. 書. 寫了. yi4ben3 shu1 xie3le5. 他. 三. 年. ta1 san1 nian2. One-CL book write-ASP he three years ‘It took him three years to write a book.’ In this thesis, we propose an explanation that there is an analogy between the behavior of action verbs, specifically activity and accomplishment verbs, and that of psychological verbs (psych verbs). In the above sentence, the theta grid has been.

(60) 50. changed. Although the verb 寫 xie3 ‘write’ needs an Agent argument, the object 他 ta1 ‘he’ is an Experiencer. Just like the pronoun in sentence (62a), 他 ta1 ‘he’ in (63) is also a person who experiences this event so its thematic roles is better assigned as Experiencer rather than Agent, and that is also the reason why it can be in the object position. The thematic role of the NP ㄧ本書 yi4ben3 shu1 ‘one book’ is Theme and that of the NP 三年 san1nian2 ‘three years’ is Extent. The theta-grid of the verb 寫. 政治大. xie3 ‘write’ in this sentence is [Theme Experiencer Extent]. The same syntactic. 立. 學. ‧ 國. construction can be found with psychological verbs. An example is presented with the psych verb 困擾 kun4rao3 ‘bother’ in (64). 問題. 困擾了. 他三. ‧. (64) 這個. 天. Nat. n. al. ‘This question has bothered him for three days.’. Ch. engchi. sit er. bother-ASP he three day. io. this-CL question. y. zhe4ge5 wen4ti2 kun4rao3le5 ta1 san1 tian1. i Un. v. In this sentence, the verb 困擾 kun4rao3 ‘bother’ is a psych verb. The NP 他 ta1 ‘he’ is the Experiencer, 問題 wen4ti2 ‘question’ is the Theme and 三天 san1 tian1 ‘three days’ is the Extent. The syntactic behavior is similar to that in the case of the three verbs 吃 chi1 ‘eat’, 抽 chou1 ‘smoke’, and 寫 xie3 ‘write’ noted before. We can explain sentence (63) by analogy with the psych verb in (64). In both sentences, the subject is the Theme, and Experiencer and Extent are complements of the verb..

(61) 51. 4.4 Psychological verbs 4.4.1 Types of psychological verbs Verbs describing psychological states are known as psychological verbs (psych verbs). It is assumed that psych verbs in normal cases have a uniform theta grid involving Experiencer and Theme. The Experiencer is the individual who experiences the psychological state or the transition of mental state. The Theme is the content or. 政治大. object of the mental state (Belletti and Rizzi 1988). Psych verbs are often classified. 立. according to the assignment of thematic roles (Kelling 2003). There are two types of. ‧ 國. 學. psych verbs claimed to exist in English. The difference between them is whether the. ‧. Experiencer is the subject and the Theme is the object or the opposite (Dowty 1991,. y. Nat. two types of psych verbs, as presented in (65).. n. al. (65) a. The girl. Ch. engchi. likes the book. Experiencer. Theme. Subject. object. b. The book. er. io. sit. Grimshaw 1990). Kelling (2003) used the words ‘like’ and ‘please’ to illustrate the. i Un. v. pleases the girl.. Theme. Experiencer. Subject. object. In (65a), the verb ‘like’ has the Experiencer as the subject and the Theme as the object. Psych verbs which behave in such a way are called subject-experiencer verbs. The.