Resultative sematic constructions of the Modern Chinese language

Abstract

The article deals with resultative semantics that can be conveyed through lexico-grammatical and syntactic means in the Modern Chinese language, as well as the combination of them. Contemporary studies view resultativity within perfective aspect and temporality (category of tense). Thus, it is a functional-semantic category in Modern Chinese. The category represents a situation with an obvious result of the actions that have caused his action. In the Chinese language, the speaker focuses on the consequences of actions that do not reflect internal situational temporality and are only partly comprehended by the speaker. The article refers to the semantic features of resultativeness and resultative constructions functioning. Resultatives introduce postpositional adverbs to a sentence and are constituents of other syntactic complexes as well. Resultativity depicts situations that are dynamic, telic, bound, instantaneous, factitive, and possesses features of evaluation modality and possibility. Each element, but for factitivity and modality, is comprehensible in every communicative situation. Resultative constructions mark the achievement situation type. In addition, these structures belong to completive markers, which denote a resultant moment of the action completion. To be completed, a situation should last a certain limited period of time. Resultatives limit the internal verb temporality; consequently, they define the dynamic features of a situation. Besides, a situation is perceived as integral and inseparable. Hence, a lexical unit denotes the resultant moment of the action. Accordingly, it marks the semantics of instant. Resultatives make the utterance evaluative, since their choice explains the speakers attitude toward the situation. Nonetheless, it is true only for the situations that have already happened; i.e. the facts obtained from the background information. The modality of possibility is conveyed with the help of infixes such as “得” de and “不” bu placed between the parts of resultative constructions to express possibility/impossibility correspondingly.