Cover not available
Article published In:
Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 9:2 (2018) ► pp.136–161
Articles

“He killed a chicken, but it didn’t die”

An empirical study of the lexicalization of state change in Mandarin monomorphemic verbs

| California State University

Mandarin contrasts typologically with English in its lexicalization of state change (Talmy 2000). The majority of Mandarin monomorphemic verbs is moot about or implies a state change, whereas English has many monomorphemic verbs (e.g. kill) that entail a state change. This study investigates empirically the nuanced lexicalization of state-change implicature in Mandarin monomorphemic verbs and its implications for the linguistic typology of encoding state change. Two experiments were conducted with adult native Mandarin speakers: a rating task about the acceptability of sentences that expressed a failure of fulfilment of a state-change (e.g. Zhangsan sha le ji, ke shi ji mei si ‘Zhangsan killed a chicken, but it didn’t die’) and a multiple-choice task that probed the preferred interpretation of monomorphemic state-change verbs. The results of both studies reveal a significant effect of verb types and post hoc comparisons show a cline of state-change implicature in the target verbs.

Keywords: event representation, state-change verbs, lexical semantics, lexicalization, typology, Mandarin
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • State-change events
    • State-change verbs in Mandarin
  • 2.The current study
    • 2.1Study 1: Semantic acceptability rating survey
      • Participants
      • Stimuli
      • Procedure
      • Analysis and results
    • 2.2Study 2: Multiple-choice task of verb meaning
      • Participants
      • Stimuli
      • Procedure
      • Analysis and results
  • 3.Discussion
    • A continuum of state-change implicature
    • The typology of lexicalization of state change
    • Lexical aspects of the target monomorphemic verbs
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 13 December 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.17007.che
References
Andersen, Roger W.
1991 “Developmental sequences: the emergence of aspect marking in second language acquisition.” In Crosscurrents in SLA and linguistic theories edited by T. Hueber and C. A. Ferguson, 305–324. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Bowerman, Melissa
1982 “Reorganizational processes in lexical and syntactic development.” In Language acquisition: The state of the art, edited by E. Wanner and L. R. Gleitman, 319–346. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L., Revere Perkins, and William Pagliuca
1994 The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Jidong
2008a “The acquisition of verb compounding in Mandarin.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics & Free University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
2017 “When transparency doesn’t mean ease: Learning the meaning of resultative verb compounds in Mandarin Chinese.” Journal of Child Language. 44 (3):695–718. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Chen, Jidong, and Yasuhiro Shirai
2010 “The development of aspectual marking in child Mandarin Chinese.” Applied Psycholinguistics 311:1–28. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Chen, Liang
2005 “The acquisition and use of motion event expressions in Chinese.” doctoral dissertation, University of Louisiana.Google Scholar
2007 The acquisition and use of motion event expressions in Mandarin Chinese. München, Germany: Lincom GmbH.Google Scholar
Chen, Liang, and Jiansheng Guo
2009 “Motion events in Chinese novels: Evidence for an equipollently-framed language.” Journal of Pragmatics 41 (9):1749–1766. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “From language structures to language use: A case from Mandarin motion expression classification.” Chinese Language and Discourse 1 (1):31–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Q. R.
2008b Hanyu timao yanjiu de leixingxue shiye [A study on the aspectual system of Mandarin from a typological perspective]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen, and C.-T. James Huang
1995 “On the argument structure of resultative compounds.” In In honor of William Wang: Interdisciplinary studies on language and language change, edited by Matthew Chen and Ovid Tzeng, 187–221. Taipei: Pyramid Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Eve V.
1993 The lexicon in acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Comrie, Bernard
1976 Aspect: An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Croft, William
2012 Verbs: Aspect and Argument Structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Östen
1985 Tense and aspect systems. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dai, Y. J.
1997 “Xiandai hanyu shiti xitong yanjiu [A study of aspect in Modern Chinese].” In. Hangzou: Zhejiang Educational Press.Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. L.
1975 “Logic and conversation.” In Syntax and Semantics, 3: Speech Acts, edited by P. Cole and J. Morgan, 41–58. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gropen, Jess, Steven Pinker, Michelle Hollander, Richard Goldberg, and Ronald Wilson
1989 “The learnability and acquisition of the dative alternation in English.” Language 651:205–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gu, Yang
1992 “The syntax of resultative and causative compounds in Chinese.” doctoral dissertation, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred
2009 “Implicatures.” In Semantics and pragmatics, edited by Uli Sauerland and Kazuko Yatsushiro, 3–15. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W.
2002 Concept, image, and symbol. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2008 Cognitive grammar: a basic introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laws, Jacqueline, and Boping Yuan
2010 Is the core-peripheral distinction for unaccusative verbs cross-linguistically consistent? Chinese Language and Discourse 1(2), 220–263. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levin, Beth
1993 English verb classes and alternations. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Levin, Beth, and Malka Rappaport Hovav
1995 “The anatomy of a diagnostic: The resultative construction.” In Unaccusativity: At the syntax-lexical semantics interface, 33–78. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Li, Charles, and Sandra Thompson
1981 Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, Feng-Xiang
1993 “A diachronic study of V-V compounds in Chinese.” doctoral dissertation, State University of New YorkGoogle Scholar
Li, Ya-Fei
1990 “On V-V compounds in Mandarin.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 81:177–207. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liu, Yuehua, Tao-Chung Yao, Nyan-Ping Bi, Liangyan Ge, and Yaohua Shi
2008 Integrated Chinesee (Simplified Characters): Level Part 1. Boston, MA: Cheng & Tsui Company.Google Scholar
Lu, John H.-T.
1977 “Resultative verb compounds vs. directional verb compounds in Mandarin.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 5 (2):276–313.Google Scholar
Ma, Zhen, and Jian-Ming Lu
1997 “Xingrongci zuo buyu qingkuang kaocha (A study of adjectival complements in Mandarin Chinese).” Hanyu Yanjiu (Chinese Studies) 971:3–9.Google Scholar
Nedjalkov, Vladimir P., and Sergel Je. Jaxontov
1988 “The typology of resultative constructions.” In Typology of Resultative Constructions, edited by Vladimir P. Nedjalkov. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pederson, E.
2007 “Event realization in Tamil.” In Crosslinguistic perspectives on argument structure: Implications for learnability, edited by Melissa Bowerman and Penelope Brown, 331–355. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Pinker, Steven
1989 Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure, Learning, developement, and conceptual change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Shen, Li
1993 “Guanyu hanyu jieguo fuhe dongci zhong canxiang jiegou de wenti (On the argument structure of Mandarin resultative verb compounds).” Yu Wen Yan Jiu (Chinese Study) 481:12–21.Google Scholar
Slobin, Dan Isaac
2004 “The many ways to search for a frog: Linguistic typology and the expression of motion events.” In Relating events in narrative: Typological and contextual perspectives, edited by S. Stromqvist and L. Verhoeven, 219–257. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tai, James Hao-Yi
1984 “Verbs and times in Mandarin Chinese: Vendler’s four categories.” In Papers from the Parasession on Lexical Semantics of the 20th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, edited by David Testen, Veena Mishra and Joseph Drogo, 289–296. Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistics Society.Google Scholar
2003 “Cognitive relativism: resultative constructions in Chinese.” Language and Linguistics 4 (2):302–316.Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard
1985 “Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms.” In Language typology and syntactic description, edited by Timothy Shopen, 36–149. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
2000 Toward a cognitive semantics. Edited by Leonard Talmy. Vol. II1: Typology and process in concept structuring. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A.
1973 “Resultative verb compounds in Mandarin Chinese: a case for lexical rules.” Language 491:361–379. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, Michael
1992 First verbs: A case study of early grammatical development. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vendler, Zeno
1957 “Verbs and times.” The Philosophical Review 66 (2):143–160. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1967 Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zou, Ke
1994 “Directional verb compounds in Chinese.” In Proceedings of the 30th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, edited by Katharine Beals, Jeannette Denton, Robert Knippen, Lynette Melnar, Hisami Suzuki and Erica Zeinfeld, 443–457. Chicago, IL.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

Chen, Jidong & Zhiying Qian
2022. Learning the Lexical Semantics of Mandarin Monomorphemic State-Change Verbs by English-Speaking Learners of Mandarin Chinese. Languages 7:3 ► pp. 215 ff. DOI logo
Kasher, Natasha & Aviya Hacohen
2023. A star is drawn: Testing the culmination inferences of Russian perfective accomplishments. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 8:1 DOI logo
Kou, Xinyan & Jill Hohenstein
2022. Fulfillment types in Realization events: Definition, distinctions, and diagnostics. Lingua 269 ► pp. 103204 ff. DOI logo
Santin, Miguel, Angeliek van Hout & Monique Flecken
2021. Event endings in memory and language. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 36:5 ► pp. 625 ff. DOI logo
Xu, Hongzhi
2019. The experiential aspect of Mandarin Chinese (-guo): Semantics and pragmatics. Lingua 229 ► pp. 102714 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.