A modal base analysis of Mandarin accomplishment predicates - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A modal base analysis of Mandarin accomplishment predicates Xiaoqian ZHANG Yingyi LUO Jianhua HU Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences xiaoqianzhang.diderot@yahoo.com yingyi.luo@gmail.com ctjhu@126.com May 28-30, 2020 The 21st Chinese Lexical Semantics Work (CLSW2020) City University of Hong Kong 1 / 35

Non-culminating accomplishments in Mandarin 1 A modal base account 2 The necessity of distinguishing different sources of endpoint 3 Concluding remarks 4 2 / 35

Non-culminating accomplishments in Mandarin Accomplishment predicates are known as denoting complex events that are composed of a process and a natural endpoint ensuing from the process. Perfective aspect requires that the event time be included in the topic time. When an accomplishment predicate occurs in the context of perfective aspect, the whole event (process+natural endpoint) should complete within the temporal interval introduced by the topic time. (1) Perfective aspect : λ P λ t T ∃ e[ τ (e) ⊆ t T & P(e)] 3 / 35

Telic reading : 他 昨 天 写 了一 封 信 ， 然 后 寄 出 去 了 。 T¯ a zuóti¯ an xiě-le yì f¯ eng xìn, ránhòu jìch¯ uqù-le. pro3sg yesterday write- pfv one clf letter then send- pfv ‘He wrote a letter yesterday and sent it.’ 4 / 35

Telic reading : 他 昨 天 写 了一 封 信 ， 然 后 寄 出 去 了 。 T¯ a zuóti¯ an xiě-le yì f¯ eng xìn, ránhòu jìch¯ uqù-le. pro3sg yesterday write- pfv one clf letter then send- pfv ‘He wrote a letter yesterday and sent it.’ Atelic reading : 他 昨 天 写 了一 封 信 ， 可 是 没 写 完 。 T¯ a zuóti¯ an xiě-le yì f¯ eng xìn, kěshì méi xiě-wán. yesterday write- pfv one letter but write-finish pro3sg clf neg ‘He wrote a letter yesterday, but he didn’t finish writing it.’ 5 / 35

Two accounts in the literature Lexical aspect account : Tai and Chou (1975), Chu (1976), Tai (1984), Sybesma (1997), Soh and Kuo (2005) and Koenig and Chief (2008), etc. Grammatical aspect account : Smith (1991, 1994), Wu (2005), Demirdache et al. (2017) and Martin (2018), etc. 6 / 35

Lexical aspect account Accomplishments do not exist in Mandarin (Tai, 1984). The Mandarin counterparts of English accomplishments do not imply the culmination of endpoint. Mandarin counterparts of English accomplishment predicates are more like activity predicates. Their lexical representation is a process (2) rather than a complex event comprising a process and a natural endpoint that marks a change of state (3). (2) [ x act ] (3) [[ x act ] cause [ become [ y < state > ]]] 7 / 35

Grammatical aspect account Mandarin accomplishment predicates are like their English counterparts and encode natural endpoint. The atelic reading is induced by the perfective marker verbal - le . Verbal - le can express either termination or completion (Smith, 1991, 1994). When it expresses termination, an atelic reading is triggered ; when it expresses completion, a telic reading is available. 8 / 35

The problems of both accounts Lexical aspect account : Although the culmination did not obtain on the atelic reading, it is true that the event initiator had the intention that the natural endpoint culminated. The proposal of lexical aspect fails to capture the intentionality meaning of the atelic reading. 9 / 35

Grammatical aspect account : The non-culminating reading is also available when verbal - le is absent. We have to admit that experiential - guo is also ambiguous between a terminative reading and a completive reading. 他 昨 天 写 过 一 封 信 ， 可 是 没 写 完 。 (4) T¯ a zuóti¯ an xiě-guò yì f¯ eng xìn, kěshì méi yesterday write- exp one letter but pro3sg clf neg xiě-wán. write-finish ‘He wrote a letter yesterday, but he didn’t finish writing it.’ This solution is rather ad hoc and language-specific, which does not apply to languages that lack overt aspectual markers, such as French, German, Polish, etc. 10 / 35

Our goal : We will propose an alternative account, namely a modal base analysis, for the lexical representation of Mandarin accomplishments. We argue that accomplishments incorporate a modal base containing the set of possible worlds compatible with the initiator’s intentions. The final sub-event and the result state ensuing form the final sub-event are placed in the scope of the modal operator to guarantee that the accomplishment does not necessarily culminate in the actual world. 11 / 35

Non-culminating accomplishments in Mandarin 1 A modal base account 2 The necessity of distinguishing different sources of endpoint 3 Concluding remarks 4 12 / 35

Three sources of natural endpoint Incremental theme endpoint : 他 吃 了一个 苹 果 ， 没 吃 光 。 (5) T¯ a ch¯ ı-le yí gè píngguˇ o, méi ch¯ ı-gu¯ ang. pro3sg eat- pfv one clf apple neg eat-complete ‘He ate an apple. He didn’t eat it up.’ Property endpoint : (6) 他 杀 了一 只 猪 ， 没 杀 死 。 T¯ a sh¯ a-le yì zh¯ ı zh¯ u, méi sh¯ a-sˇ ı. kill- pfv one pig kill-die pro3sg clf neg ‘He killed a pig. The pig was not dead.’ Script endpoint : 他 做 了一个 实 验 ， 没 做 完 。 (7) T¯ a zuò-le yí gè shíyàn, méi zuò-wán. pro3sg conduct- pfv one clf experiment neg conduct-finish ‘He conducted an experiment. He didn’t finish it.’ 13 / 35

Incremental theme endpoint 他 吃 了一个 苹 果 ， 没 吃 光 。 (8) T¯ a ch¯ ı-le yí gè píngguˇ o, méi ch¯ ı-gu¯ ang. pro3sg eat- pfv one clf apple neg eat-complete ‘He ate an apple. He didn’t eat it up.’ The verb eat is an incremental verb and the object an apple is thus an incremental theme that provides an endpoint. There is homomorphism between the event described by the incremental verb and the “abstract” scale that measures the change undergone by the incremental theme, cf. Krifka (1989), Krifka (1992), Krifka (1998), Wyngaerd (2001), Rothstein (2004), Wechsler (2005), Beavers (2007), Beavers (2011) and Ramchand (2008). 14 / 35

他 吃 了一个 苹 果 ， 没 吃 光 。 (9) T¯ a ch¯ ı-le yí gè píngguˇ o, méi ch¯ ı-gu¯ ang. eat- pfv one apple eat-complete pro3sg clf neg ‘He ate an apple. He didn’t eat it up.’ As the event of eating progressed, more and more parts of the apple were consumed. When the last part of the apple was eaten, the event of eating an apple completed. The default reading of eat an apple in the context of perfective aspect is a telic reading. The continuation clause appears to cancel the incremental theme endpoint that guang ‘complete’ targets. 15 / 35

Property endpoint 他 杀 了一 只 猪 ， 没 杀 死 。 (10) T¯ a sh¯ a-le yì zh¯ ı zh¯ u, méi sh¯ a-sˇ ı. pro3sg kill- pfv one clf pig neg kill-die ‘He killed a pig. The pig was not dead.’ The object a pig is not an incremental theme and does not provide an incremental theme endpoint. It is the pig’s property that supplies a natural endpoint : when the pig entered into the state of being dead , the event of killing a pig reached its culmination point. The negation clause suggests that the secondary predicate si ‘die’ can be used to subtract kill a pig of its property endpoint. 16 / 35

Script endpoint 他 做 了一个 实 验 ， 没 做 完 。 (11) T¯ a zuò-le yí gè shíyàn, méi zuò-wán. pro3sg conduct- pfv one clf experiment neg conduct-finish ‘He conducted an experiment. He didn’t finish it.’ The event structure of conduct an experiment is based on an “action script”, which is “prototypical courses of actions performed by the agent” (Kearns, 2007, p. 43). The completion of the last action composing the event of conducting an experiment provides a script endpoint. The event of conducting an experiment unfolded as more and more actions were realised : when the last action was realised, the event in question culminated. 17 / 35

Categorisation of accomplishments in Mandarin Table – Categorisation of accomplishments on the basis of sources of endpoint 18 / 35

The initial point of accomplishments cannot be cancelled Incremental theme endpoint 他 吃 了一个 苹 果 ， 没 吃 光 。 # 因 为 没 开 始 吃 。 (12) T¯ a ch¯ ı-le yí gè píngguˇ o, méi ch¯ ı-gu¯ ang. # pro3sg eat- pfv one clf apple neg eat-complete Y¯ ınwéi méi ka¯ ıshˇ ı ch¯ ı. because neg begin eat ‘He ate an apple. He didn’t eat it up.#Because he didn’t begin.’ 19 / 35

Property endpoint 他 杀 了一 只 猪 ， 没 杀 死 。 # 因 为 没 开 始 杀 。 (13) T¯ a sh¯ a-le yì zh¯ ı zh¯ u, méi sh¯ a-sˇ ı. # Y¯ ınwéi méi pro3sg kill- pfv one clf pig neg kill-die because neg ka¯ ıshˇ ı sh¯ a. begin kill ‘He tried to kill a pig. The pig was not killed to death. Because he didn’t begin.’ 20 / 35

Script endpoint 他 做 了一个 实 验 ， 没 做 完 。 # 因 为 没 开 始 做 。 (14) T¯ a zuò-le yí gè shíyàn, méi zuò-wán. pro3sg conduct- pfv one clf experiment neg conduct-finish #Y¯ ınwéi méi ka¯ ıshˇ ı zuò. because begin conduct neg ‘He conducted an experiment. He didn’t finish conducting.#Because he didn’t begin.’ 21 / 35