Motion, Direction and Spatial Configuration: A lexical semantic study of hang verbs in Mandarin Mei-chun, Liu Presenter: Wan-yi, Hung
Introduction 2
Introduction (1) This paper presents a lexical semantic analysis of a sub-class of spatial configuration verbs in Mandarin verbs of hanging. Lexical Semantics: the behavior of a verb, particularly with respect to the expression and interpretation of its arguments, is to a large extent determined by its meaning. (Levin 1993:1) 2
Introduction (2) Aim: illustrate that the semantic components motion, direction, and contact all play a role in defining and differentiating the three Mandarin near-synonyms of hang: 掛, 懸, 吊. Question: 1. What is the shared conceptual frame, if any? 2. What are the semantic distinctions lexically encoded in the three verbs? 3. In what way are the distinctions syntactically realized? 3
The Data 5
The Data Table 1: Distribution of Mandarin verbs of hanging in Sinica Corpus Verbs Number of occurrences 掛 234 懸 36 吊 29 What is the semantic basis for 掛 s wide range of uses? 4
Grammatical distribution & event structure 7
Grammatical distribution & event structure (1) Three types of constructions: agentive transitive construction (i) 工人把一袋淺掛 / 懸 / 吊在樹上 (agent-oriented) theme-locative intransitive construction (ii) 一袋淺掛 / 懸 / 吊在樹上 (figure-oriented) locative inversion construction (iii) 樹上掛 / 懸 / 吊著一袋淺 (ground-oriented) 5
Grammatical distribution & event structure (2) Complex event structure of hang a. Act of putting: I hung a clock on the wall. b. Endpoint of putting: A clock (is) hung on the wall. c. Resultant state of spatial relation: (a) Figure-oriented: A clock hangs on the wall. (b) Ground-oriented: On the wall hangs a clock. 6
Grammatical distribution & event structure (3) Schematic representation of the event structure (Huang et al 2000) Motion-Boundary-State: / Table 2: Distributional variation in grammatical construction 掛 懸 吊 N=234 N=36 N=29 Agentive Transitive 26% 61) 3% (1) 76% 22) Theme-locative intran 35% (82) 50%(18) 7% (2) Motion Endpoint Locative Inversion 31% (72) 22% (8) 10% (3) Other(mostly intran) 8% (19) 25% (9) 7% (2) State 7
Locative inversion & conceptualization of spatial relation 11
Locative inversion & conceptualization of Spatial Relation (1) Ways of conceptualizing the event of hanging a. Agentive Transitive: Agent-oriented causal predication b. Theme-Locative Intransitive: Figure-oriented spatial predication c. Locative inversion: Ground-oriented spatial predication 8
Locative inversion & conceptualization of Spatial Relation (2) Two types of Locative Inversion: Existential Locative Inversion Directional Locative Inversion (Levin 1993:94) 9
Locative Inversion (1) Existential Locative Inversion the existence of a Figure by positioning the Figure within the spatial boundary of a Ground Eg: In the car [Ground] is a dog [Figure] 10
Locative Inversion (1) In Mandarin, to mark spatial existence as a durative state, the durative aspect marker 著 is often used Spatial existence (i) 地上躺著一個人 (ii) 牆上掛 / 懸 / 吊著一幅畫 Resultant state 11
Locative Inversion (2) Directional Locative Inversion the sense of appearance, or coming into sight, by specifying the direction of motion as a Cause for a Figure to come into the spatial boundary of a Ground Eg: into the car [Ground] comes a dog [Figure] 12
Locative Inversion (2) Directional Locative Inversion Verbs of Manner of Motion a. 前面跑 [ 來 ] Deictic 一個人 b. * 前面跑 [ ] 一個人 Verbs of Hanging c. 橋上吊 (* 掛 /* 懸 ) 起一部車 d. 河裡吊 (* 掛 /* 懸 ) 起一部車 Directional 起 13
Image schema & semantic attributes 18
Image schema & semantic attributes (1) 牆上掛 / 懸 / 吊著一幅畫 14
Image schema & semantic attributes (2) a. 掛 : [contact] [ground support] Figure 1: Image schema of 掛 (i) 他掛彩了 15
Image schema & semantic attributes (3) b. 懸 : [no contact] [no ground support] Figure 2: Image schema of 懸 (i) 他心懸 /? 吊 /* 掛在空中 (ii) 空缺上懸 (* 掛 /* 吊 ) 著 16
Image schema & semantic attributes (4) c. 吊 : [with a trajectory] Figure 3: Image schema of 吊 (i) 吊單槓 (ii) 吊死 17
Conclusion 23
Conclusion (1) Grammatical distributions Help to decipher the semantic orientations or event focuses of individual verbs. Collocational patterns Help us to identify fine-grained semantic distinctions among 懸 掛 吊 Image schema & semantic attributes 掛 : [contact] [ground support] 懸 : [no contact] [no ground support] 吊 : [support with a string] 18
Conclusion (2) Although the study focuses on the hang verbs in Mandarin, it touches upon some important issues regarding verbs of spatial configuration in general. Verbs like sit, lie, crouch, or lean display a wide range of uses, and most are categorized into multiple classes in Levin (1993). They are 1) verbs of putting in spatial configuration, 2) verbs of spatial configuration, 3) verbs of assuming a position. In Levin s approach, these are separate senses or independent uses of the verb. But in our analysis, the three senses are viewed as related subparts, or phases of a complex event structure, namely, Motion, followed by Directional/locational Endpoint, followed by Resultant State of Spatial Configuration. 19
Conclusion (3) If verbal semantics is to be studied in a fashion similar to that of nominal semantics, then the senses distinguished by Levin (1993) may be considered different meaning facets of the same sense, as argued in Pustejovsky (1995). Formal role Constitutive role Agentive role Telic role This is a beautiful book. This is a good book. It takes ten years to write this book. This book is hard to read. The analysis put forward in this paper offers an alternative way to link related verbal senses with one underlying structure. For verbs of spatial configuration, the composite nature of their event structure may be one of the unique semantic properties characteristic of the class. 20
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