CLSW-2020 Mandarin Physical Contact Verbs: a Frame-based Constructional Approach Meichun Liu, Tianqi He, Hongfeng He and Yifan Cao Department of Linguistics and Translation, CityU & Department of Chinese Language and Literature, HUST
Contact • Previous studies considered CONTACT as an essential semantic component that are lexically encoded and distinguished in verb meanings, which has been testified with cross-linguistic evidences: ü English: an ubiquitous semantic characteristic. (Webster & Marcus 1989; Cohen & Oates 1998). ü Other languages: an essential lexical feature. (Choi & Bowerman 1991; Kawachi 2007; Schultze-Berndt 2000) 2
English Physical Contact (EPC) Verbs • Previous literature pointed to two major sub-classes of Contact verbs that are most extensively studied: ü Verbs of Contact by Impact : may participate in conative alternation that implies directed motion. (Levin 1993; Kemmerer 2003; Viberg 2004) Hit, Strike, Beat, Break ü Verbs of Surface Contact : describe surface contact without encoding a directed motion through impact. (Fillmore 1967; Hovav and Levin 2002) Rub, Scratch, Sweep, Wipe 3
Mandarin Physical Contact (MPC) Verbs • Studies on MPC verbs mainly focused on two aspests: ü Cross-Linguisitic Comparison: both MPC and EPC verbs are naturally combined with Motion frame; Path is more closely related to MPC verbs due to the usage of co-verb bă . (Gao 2001; Gao & Cheng 2003). 我把小桶滑 / 滾 / 彈進了廚房 ü Classifying Criteria: -- Diathesis alternation. (Wang 2008) -- Lexicalized semantic characteristics. (Zhao 2008) 4
What is less known: • Less attention has been paid to the conceptual schema of MPC verbs and the semantic components lexicalized in their verb roots. • Little is known about the frame elements and corresponding defining patterns of MPC verbs and its potential sub-types. Thus, there still lacks a consensus on the scope and criteria in defining MPC verbs. 5
The Purpose • To offer a consistent, principled and comprehensive analysis and classification of MPC verbs with a frame- based constructional approach. • To probe into the conceptual schema and tease out the lexical semantic distinctions encoded in MPC verbs, based on corpus distributions of semantic-to-syntactic features. • To provide characterization of the language-specific lexicalization patterns unique to the Chinese verbal lexicon. 6
Corpus and Approach • Corpus: ü The distributional data are mainly based on Sinica corpus and Gigaword. • Approach: ü A frame-based constructional approach (Liu & Chiang 2008; Liu 2016; 2018; 2019) is adopted on the basis of theoretical premises in Frame Semantics (Fillmore 1982, 1985) and Construction Grammar (Goldberg 1995, 2003, 2006). 7
Motion • Talmy (1985: 57-58) proposed four basic semantic components (Figure/Motion/Path/Ground) and two additional components (Cause/Manner) conflated in Motion verbs: Two subtypes of Motion verbs are listed as conflating distinctive Manner: ‘Move+Manner’ (moving e.g. roll ); ‘Be L +Manner’ (being located e.g. lie ). 8
Contact and Motion • Physical Contact verbs are closely related to Motion verbs by lexicalizing the semantic features of Motion in their verb meanings (Gao 2001; Gao & Cheng 2003). Motion Event: The keg rolled into the storeroom. Physical Contact Event: I rolled the keg into the storeroom. 9
Motion verbs • Motion verbs encode motional Path with Goal (marked by dào 到 ‘to’ ): Motion verb g ǔ n 滚 ‘roll’ is more likely to take a motional path-PP. 10
MPC verbs • MPC verbs may lexically profile contact with an affected figure as an end result, rather than profiling a motional path: MPC verbs tend to collocate with the locative marker zài 在 ‘at/on’ and take a Locative PP. 11
MPC Verbs vs. Motion Verbs: • MPC and Motion verbs show skewing preference in selecting adverbials and resultatives: -- Manner adverbials of force (e.g., yònglì 用力 ‘violently’) is frequently found with impact verbs but not with motion verbs. -- Resultatives due to strong impact (eg. pò/suì 破 / 碎 ‘broken’) are frequently used with contact verbs but not motion verbs. 12
Conceptual Schema of MPC verbs An Agent engaged in a motional Act involving a specific Body Part or by • use of an Instrument, in a specific Manner or Direction that brings the Agent in Contact with a patient-like Figure which may be affected in some way as a Result’ . 13
Transitive Pattern of MPC Verbs: MPC verbs are highly transitive, they can easily enter the prototypical • transitive pattern: ‘Agent + CONTACT V + Figure’ (Hopper & Thompson 1980; Gropen 1989; Dixon, 2000; Ackerman & Moore 2001; Kemmerer 2008) : 14
Primary Frames of MPC verbs • Three major groups (primary frames) can be distinguished on the basis of distinctive semantic-syntacitc features: ü Verbs of Contact by Impact (CI verbs) Dǎ/pāi/qiāo/jī 打 / 拍 / 敲 / 擊 ‘hit/pat/knock/strike’ ü Verbs of Contact by Surface Motion (CS verbs) Cā/sǎo/tú/mò 擦 / 掃 / 塗 / 抹 ‘wipe/sweep/paint/rub’ ü Verbs of Contact by Holding (CH verbs) Wò/zhuā/zuàn/niē 握 / 抓 / 攥 / 捏 ‘hold/grab/seizesqueeze’ 15
CI vs. CS vs. CH verbs with Adverbs: -- CI and CH verbs frequently occur with manner adjuncts while CS verbs tend to choose instrumental adjuncts. -- In terms of manner adjuncts, CI and CH verbs show a clear preference in collocating with force-related adjuncts. 16
CI vs. CS vs. CH verbs in VR Compounds: -- CI verbs frequently take resulatives indicating change of state by impact. -- CH verbs tend to collocate with resultatives denoting tightly gripping. -- CS verbs frequently collocate with appearance- pertaining resultatives. 17
CI vs. CS vs. CH verbs with Durative markers: -- Only CH verbs frequently co-occur with the durative state marker zhe 著 , coding prolonged contact (He et. al. 2019) . In sum, MPC verbs display quite various patterns in corpus and therefore, an extensive study on the semantic components conflated in the verb roots and the corresponding syntactic behaviors of MPC verbs is significant in further distinguish their potential subcategories. 18
Contact by Impact (CI) Verbs: Crucial criteria: three-way alternation to highlight the Affected Figure. • The Affected Figure can be expressed with three syntactic forms: 1) as a patient-like direct object; 2) as a direct contact point with specified body-part; 3) as a post-verbal locative. 19
Basic Frames of CI verbs • Three basic frames can be further differentiated: ü Body Part Incorporated CI verbs (BOD_INCOR_CI) dǎ 打 ‘hit’ chōu 抽 ‘slap’ zá 砸 ‘smash’ chuí 捶 ‘pound’ pāi 拍 ‘pat’ dǐng 頂 ‘head’ guō 摑 ‘slap’ shān 扇 ‘slap’ tī 踢 ‘kick’ chuài 踹 ‘kick’ mō 摸 ‘touch’ duò 跺 ‘stamp’ ü Instrument Incorporated CI verbs (INS_INCOR_CI) kǎn 砍 ‘cut’ tǒng 捅 ‘poke’ cì 刺 ‘stab’ chuí 錘 ‘hammer’ ü Collision Incorporated CI verbs (COL_INCOR_CI) pèng 碰 ‘hit’ zá 砸 ‘smash’ qiāo 敲 ‘knock’ zhuàng 撞 ‘bump’ jī 擊 ‘hit’ cèng 蹭 ‘rub’ 20
Body Part Incorporated CI verbs: • Definition: an Agent_Impactor uses certain Body Part in a force-related Manner into Contact with the Figure_Impactee, which is affected in some way as a Result. • Frame Elements: Agent_Impactor, Figure_Impactee, Body-Part as Instrument, (Manner, Result). -- Body Part is graphically encoded as the radical in written characters: ‘foot 足 ’ in tī 踢 ( 足 + 易 ) ‘kick’ -- Body Part is overly expressed as Instrument. 21
Instrument Incorporated CI verbs: • Definition: an Agent_Impactor utilizes a specified Instrument in a force- related Manner into Contact with the Figure_Impactee, which is affected in some way as a Result.’ • Frame Elements: Agent_Impactor, Figure_Impactee, Instrument, (Result, Ground). -- Instrument is incorporated in character forms: ‘knife 刀 ’ in cì 刺 ( 朿 + 刂 ) ‘stab’ -- Instrument is prominent enough to enter the Subject slot. 22
Collision Incorporated CI verbs: • Definition: an Agent_Impactor moves with force into colliding Contact with the Figure_Impactee which is affected in some way as a Result. • Frame Elements: Agent_Impactor, Figure_Impactee, (Result, Instrument, Body Part). -- Body Part and Instrument are not specified and hence show a higher flexibility in adverbial collocations: • ‘ yòng 用 by use of + Instrument’ • ‘ yòng 用 by use of + Body Part’ 23
Lexicalization of COL_INCOR_CI Verbs: Mono-syllabic COL_INCOR_CI verbs can be combined into disyllabic VV • compounds and render a bilateral or bi-directional act of colliding contact, which may be used intransitively with plural subjects: 24
Less Prototypical CI Verbs: • Less prototypical CI verbs such as mō 摸 ‘touch’ and cèng 蹭 ‘rub’ may not involve strong impact but tend to take low-impact manner adverbs. They may show some similarities with surface motion verbs in coding manner and motional path: 25
Contact by Surface Motion (CS) Verbs: Crucial criteria: two-way alternation to highlight the Figure or Ground (Liu • 2001) . -- Locus/Locatum as Object: highlight the Ground/ Figure -- Denoting motional path: ‘V-lái-V-qù’ construction 26
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