Conceptual Schema as Semantic Link: A Frame-based Study of Mandarin Cognition Verbs

Abstract

A considerable number of studies have been dedicated to the unique behavior of cognitive or mental verbs as a group, in contrast to that of physical action verbs; but little has been said about the syntactic and semantic diversity within the group, as they encode various facets of the complex process of human cognition. This study provides a detailed analysis of the lexical semantic distinctions encoded in Mandarin cognition verbs as evidenced in their semantics-to-syntax correlations. Based on grammatical and collocational patterns, subclasses of cognition verbs are distinguished and anchored in different semantic frames. This study investigates Mandarin cognition verbs from the perspective of Frame Semantics and proposes a domain-specific conceptual schema for relating all different types of cognition verbs as the underlying background for various cognition frames. The frames may be plotted into the schema as different stages of the process of cognition, highlighting different event types. The study is part of a long-term research program exploring Mandarin verbs and provides an illustration of a systematic framework for analyzing and representing verbal semantics.