Abstract

According to previous research, it is agreed that the directional complements in Chinese can be extended to mean “resultative”. Furthermore, according to the view that ‘verb + RVCD’ structure corresponds to the representative result phrase in Chinese, the ‘verb + RVCD’ structure is analyzed based on the characteristics of ‘resultativity’. First, the characteristics of ‘resultativity’ should form a causative relationship of ‘cause and effect’, but in the case of ‘verb + RVCD’ structure, the causative relationship is not evident in every situation. For example accomplishments have a characteristic of including causative meaning on its own, making the resultativity of RVCD at the end clear. On the other hand, with achievements, RVCD’s resultativity was found to be ambiguous due to the lack of such characteristics. Next, ‘verb + RVCD’ structure was examined based on Pustejovsky’s event structure theory according to Mezhevich’s view that the resulting phrase appears as the structure of a complex event. They keep the form of complex events structure in event structure, but the order of occurrence between the subevents forming such complex events is reflected differently. In the case of ‘accomplishments + RVCD’, subevents have an ‘exhaustive ordered part of’ sequential happening, thus ‘cause events’ and ‘resulting event’ are separated, clearly showing their causative relationship. On the other hand, the ‘achievements + RVCD’ structure have an ‘exhaustive overlap part of’ simultaneous happening, thus their causative relationship is not clearly shown as the ‘cause events’ and ‘resulting event’ are not separated. As examined above, the ‘verb + RVCD’ structure in Chinese is shown differently not only in the characteristics of the overall structure depending on the aspectual type of the verb and the aspectual type of the RVCD, but also in the subevent’s degree of event order situation and a causative situation.

Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.