Chinese Verbs Research Articles

A Semantic-Contrastive Study of the Chinese Verb Kai and the Korean Verb Yeolda

Based on corpus analysis and meaning chain theory, this paper conducted a contrastive study on the basic verbs of Chinese "Kai" and Korean "Yeolda". The study found that under their basic meanings, the noun constituents collocated with the verbs "Kai" and "Yeolda" share the common semantic features of [+closed] or [+restrictive]. Additionally, compared to Korean "Yeolda", Chinese "Kai" places greater emphasis on the result of the action, while "Yeolda" emphasizes both the manner in which the action is conducted and the result of the action. Overall, Chinese "Kai" is semantically more versatile, flexible, and inclusive, indicating a greater degree of semantic transferability and acceptance among native Chinese speakers compared to Korean "Yeolda".

The Role of the Left Middle Temporal Gyrus in the Semantic Processing of Nouns and Verbs in Chinese: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study

The Role of the Left Middle Temporal Gyrus in the Semantic Processing of Nouns and Verbs in Chinese: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study

Multi-modal Chinese Text Emotion Metaphor Computation Based on Mutual Information and Information Entropy

Metaphor is to express another thing through one thing, it is not only a rhetorical means, but also embodies a kind of analogical cognition and way of thinking of people. In recent years, metaphors have made more and more progress in Chinese language recognition, so their status has gradually risen. Chinese language sentiment analysis is a relatively difficult problem in language processing. Chinese language semantics is ambiguous and complex, so it is a great challenge to construct Chinese Emotion structure. In this paper, Chinese nouns and Chinese verbs are used as test samples to conduct metaphor test calculation. The test results of mutual information and information entropy show that for the sample metaphor calculation, the correct rate of individual words is less than 70%. The ratio between the macro-average of gerund words and the baseline fluctuates relatively large. The metaphor recognition of nouns is about 20% higher than the original test results and about 10% higher for verbs. It shows that under the action of mutual information and information entropy, the metaphor recognition performance of the basic structure of Chinese Emotion constructed from the perspective of metaphor is improved, and further illustrates the feasibility of mutual information and information entropy algorithm for building the basic structure.

The representation of noun-verb distinction in left posterior middle temporal gyrus: evidence from representation similarity analyses.

Nouns and verbs are fundamental grammatical building blocks of languages. A key question is whether and where the noun-verb division was represented in the brain. Previous studies mainly used univariate analyses to examine this issue. However, the interpretation of activated brain regions in univariate analyses may be confounded with general cognitive processing and/or confounding variables. We addressed these limitations by using partial representation similarity analysis (RSA) of Chinese nouns and verbs with different levels of imageability. Participants were asked to complete the 1-back grammatical class probe (GCP; an explicit measure) and the 1-back word probe (WP; an implicit measure) tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. RSA results showed that the activation pattern in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LpMTG) was significantly correlated with the grammatical class representational dissimilarity matrix in the GCP task after eliminating the potential confounding variables. Moreover, the LpMTG did not overlap with the frontal-parietal regions that were activated by verbs vs. nouns or the task effect (CRP vs. WP) in univariate analyses. These results highlight the role of LpMTG in distinguishing nouns from verbs rather than general cognitive processing.

Lexical niche and sustainability: an ecolinguistic perspective

Abstract This paper proposes the innovative concept of lexical niche to analyze the ecology of vocabulary from an ecolinguistic perspective. Through the examination of niche breadth and overlap, we quantitatively assess the vitality and competition of six typical Chinese eating verbs: shi (食), fan (饭), can (餐), dan (啖), ru (茹), and chi (吃). The analysis reveals their diachronic evolution in the history of the Chinese language (temporal niche), their synchronic distribution in Chinese dialects (spatial niche), and their verb-object collocation (functional niche). The findings indicate the following: (1) Shi, fan, can, dan, and ru originated in Early Old Chinese, while chi emerged in Late Old Chinese. (2) The niche breadths of the six eating verbs are as follows: 2.585, −2.391, −2.242, −0.108, −1.734, and 3.889, respectively. Chi demonstrates the highest vitality, followed by shi; fan, can, dan, and ru exhibit extremely low vitality. (3) Shi originated in the Pre-Qin dynasty, serving as the dominant eating verb in ancient times with robust competition. However, in modern times, it has evolved into a morpheme for compound words, displaying weak sustainability. Chi, born in the Han dynasty, replaced shi as the dominant eating verb by the late Tang dynasty, establishing itself as the most competitive verb to date, characterized by strong sustainability.

Who is the language policy for? Translation discrepancies and their implications to (dis)trust

This paper investigates the impact of language policy translation as a discursive action on historical and political mechanisms of trust within the context of Indigenous language revitalization in Taiwan. Combining a critical discourse studies approach and translation theories, we examine the translation discrepancies between the Chinese source text and the English translation of Tawain’s Indigenous Language Development Act (2017). We focus on the analysis of the interpersonal meanings conveyed by two Chinese modal verbs (ying/應 and de/得), aiming to elucidate how Taiwan’s Government positions itself within both language versions. The findings suggest that the government constructs itself as more actively responsible for the Indigenous language development in the English version. This strategic move reflects the government’s commitment to enhancing Taiwan’s international reputation as the English version is meant for global audiences. Considering language policy is inherently ideological with the government’s political intentions, we discuss the implication of distrust created by the translation discrepancy. This study highlights that language policy translation can be recontextualized to suit a government’s political agendas and ideological appropriations.

The concrete processing of Chinese action metaphors: an ERP study.

The present research adopts ERP (Event-Related Potentials) technology to investigate whether there exists a concreteness effect in the processing of Chinese action verbs within metaphorical context. The mean amplitudes of N400 activated by action metaphors were compared with those activated by literal verbs and abstract verbs. The findings indicated that the Met verbs evoked a significantly larger N400 response at frontal brain region compared to the Abs verbs at a time window 200-500 ms, while the Met verbs elicited a notably greater N400 amplitude specifically at the posterior brain region in comparison to the Lit verbs at 300-500 ms time window. These results may be interpreted as indicating that the comprehension of the Met verbs is based on the concrete action semantics.

Verbal vocabulary as a means of expressing interpersonal relations in Russian and Chinese

The subject of the study is the semantic and functional features of the lexico-semantic group of verbs denoting interpersonal relations in the Russian and Chinese languages. The verbal vocabulary representing the category of relationship describes the relationships that arise between people in the form of feelings, judgments and appeals to each other in the course of everyday life. The purpose of the proposed article is to identify the semantic and functional features of the verbs of the lexico-semantic group of interpersonal relations in the system of Russian and Chinese languages. The study revealed similarities and differences in the meaning of these verbs. As the analysis showed, some Chinese verbs do not match the meaning of the verbs of the Russian language. This article also examines the types of semantic changes in the semantic structure of the verbal word form functioning in the context. The main method of studying this group of verbs in Russian and Chinese is the comparative method. The descriptive method and the functional-semantic method, as well as the method of component analysis, were used in the selection and use of linguistic material. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the verbs of interpersonal relations are still insufficiently studied on the materials of the Russian and Chinese languages. The results of the research can be used in the practice of teaching university courses in such disciplines as cognitive linguistics, linguoculturology, and intercultural communication. The study allows us to conclude that the verbs of interpersonal relationships are quite often used in both languages. The meanings of Chinese and Russian verbs are not always equivalent. Their semantic structures may also differ. The analysis of interlanguage gaps reveals the presence of incomplete lexical correspondence to a foreign word. Some verbal lexicons express interpersonal relationships in their direct meanings, while others develop this ability as a result of semantic modulation and semantic derivation. Interpersonal relationships can be expressed by verbs from other lexico-semantic groups, acquiring the semantics of interpersonal relationships in the context. In conclusion, we note that expressions of interpersonal relationships can also be verb-noun combinations, which, when analyzing various specifiers in the context, indicate the reasons for a positive or negative attitude towards a person.

The immediate integration of semantic selectional restrictions of Chinese social hierarchical verbs with extralinguistic social hierarchical information in comprehension

Abstract Social hierarchical information impacts language comprehension. Nevertheless, the specific process underlying the integration of linguistic and extralinguistic sources of social hierarchical information has not been identified. For example, the Chinese social hierarchical verb 赡养, /shan4yang3/, ‘support: provide for the needs and comfort of one’s elders’, only allows its Agent to have a lower social status than the Patient. Using eye-tracking, we examined the precise time course of the integration of these semantic selectional restrictions of Chinese social hierarchical verbs and extralinguistic social hierarchical information during natural reading. A 2 (Verb Type: hierarchical vs. non-hierarchical) × 2 (Social Hierarchy Sequence: match vs. mismatch) design was constructed to investigate the effect of the interaction on early and late eye-tracking measures. Thirty-two participants (15 males; age range: 18–24 years) read sentences and judged the plausibility of each sentence. The results showed that violations of semantic selectional restrictions of Chinese social hierarchical verbs induced shorter first fixation duration but longer regression path duration and longer total reading time on sentence-final nouns (NP2). These differences were absent under non-hierarchical conditions. The results suggest that a mismatch between linguistic and extralinguistic social hierarchical information is immediately detected and processed.

Testing the unique item hypothesis with phrasal verbs in Chinese–English translations of Lu Xun’s short stories: the perspective of translation directionality

The present study revisits the unique item hypothesis (UIH) from the perspective of translation directionality in the Chinese–English(C–E) language pair. Phrasal verb (PV) is used as the linguistic feature to investigate whether UIH holds true in C–E translations and whether translation directionality plays a role in the representation of unique items, based on a self-built parallel corpus of Lu Xun’s short stories and their English translations done by two L1 and two L2 translators, and a reference corpus of BNC short stories as the non-translated reference. It is found PVs are significantly over-represented in C–E translated texts when compared with English non-translated texts, and this overrepresentation is mainly attributed to the remarkable use of PVs by L1 translators; and there is a significant difference in the use of PVs by translators of different directionality, while no significant difference is found within the same direction. Additionally, L2 translators tend to use a limited range of PVs and prefer transparent PVs to semi-transparent and opaque ones. The results falsify the UIH in general and suggest that UIH is a conditional translation tendency constrained by translation directionality, or UIH is directionality-dependent. Gravitational pull model is used to analyze and explain the divergence between different translation directions.

Foreword

Dear Linguistic Enthusiasts and Scholars, It is with our great pleasure to announce that the new issue of Acta Linguistica Asiatica is now available. As you pursue this issue, you will notice a refreshed look inspired by the new outlines of the University of Ljubljana, reflecting our commitment to growth and innovation. We take pride in our dedicated team whose expertise drives our exploration of linguistic intricacies and cultural nuances. This issue features four scientific articles and one review article, offering diverse perspectives on Chinese and Japanese as the East Asian languages in focus. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all contributors and reviewers whose scholarly rigor enriches our journal. To begin with, Tereza SLAMĚNÍKOVÁ and David UHER wrote an article entitled “Rhythmical Features of Spontaneous Spoken Narrative in Mandarin Chinese”, in which they introduce and expand a notation system for teaching Chinese rhythm pioneered by Oldřich Švarný, a Czech phonetician. They analyze spontaneous speech to outline rhythmical features in personal narratives and compare these features with a contemporary understanding of Chinese speech rhythm, showcasing the applicability of Švarný’s framework in diverse spoken discourses. Following is the work by KUANG Lincai “A Colexficational Analysis of Chū in Modern Chinese” that deals with directional verbs in modern Chinese, in particular with chū. The author delves into colexification and mechanisms surrounding chū, using the CLICS3 database. It explores colexified pairs of chū and constructs a colexificational network, emphasizing conceptual metaphor and metonymy as core mechanisms. Yet another scientific paper was authored by YANG Yongzhong and is entitled “The Structure of Chinese Compounds: The Perspective of Predicative Implicitness”, which explored Chinese nominal compounds' structure, relations, generation, and constraints, emphasizing predicate implicitness. Findings reveal varying constituent functions aligning morphological and syntactic structures, and the author offers a detailed account of their hierarchy. Trang PHAN and Giang VU submitted the paper “Wh-questions in Japanese: Challenges for Vietnamese L2 learners” in which they explored how Vietnamese learners handle structural differences in Japanese wh-questions. Results showed a correlation between Japanese proficiency and performance. Though learners were evaluated as more accurate with mirrored word orders, advanced learners also struggled with native-like interpretations. The study suggests explicit instruction to enhance accuracy in teaching. Last but not least is the survey article by Duc Du HUYNH, “Sino-Vietnamese Bilingual Dictionaries from the Middle Ages to the Present”, in which the author thoroughly surveys Sino-Vietnamese bilingual dictionaries from the Middle Ages to the Modern Ages, often overlooked in scholarly discourse. It delineates their evolution, regional differences, and historical context, aiming to catalyze further research in this field. Editors and Editorial Board invite the regular and new readers to engage with the content, to question, challenge, and reflect. We hope you have a pleasant read full of inspiration and a rise of new research ideas inspired by these papers. Editors

A Colexficational Analysis of Chū in Modern Chinese

Directional verbs in modern Chinese, notably chū, are crucial. Previous studies on chū pay little attention to colexification and its mechanisms; they primarily focus on polysemy, syntactic restriction, and diachronic evolution in Mandarin Chinese. Research on Chinese topolects has also been neglected. Development of the Database of Cross-linguistic Colexifications (CLICS3) facilitates its cross-linguistic and topolectal exploration. This paper first discusses colexified pairs of chū in Modern Chinese, and constructs its colexificational network based on the CLICS3. It also argues for colexificational mechanisms of colexified extensions. Conceptual metaphor and metonymy are considered two core mechanisms accounting for the colexified extensions of chū. Metaphoric colexified extensions map onto the space, time, and state domain, following the order of “space > time > state”. As for the metonymic colexified extensions, the extended concepts result from different substructures of the image schema profiled in the motion event of chū.

Causative alternation in Zuo Tradition

Abstract This study examines the different variants of causative alternation in Zuo Tradition (左傳), an archaic Chinese narrative history from the Pre-Qin period. It is found that denominal verbs, unergative verbs, and “pure” unaccusative verbs participate actively in the alternation, and that the causative variant bears a complex relation with the agentive and putative variants; this causes problems for previous analyses. This paper proposes a two-step build-up of eventuality for causative alternation in archaic Chinese. Specifically, I propose that verbs in archaic Chinese are monadic and select only one argument. The merger of the verb with this argument is the realization of its eventuality conceptualized in the Lexicon; any further merger is determined by the eventuality composed by different light verbs in syntax. The uninitiated light verb is a placeholder with an empty argument. A specific light verb value is determined by the eventuality that is sent to the syntactic structure. Thus, the difference between all variants in causative alternation witnessed in Zuo Tradition lies in the different eventualities which they introduce into the syntactic configuration.

A Study on the Chronological Evolution of the Chinese Verb “Bǎi (摆)”

A Study on the Chronological Evolution of the Chinese Verb “Bǎi (摆)”

A Study on Core-Semantic Feature of Chinese Verbs : Focusing on Ao(熬) and Chao(炒)

A Study on Core-Semantic Feature of Chinese Verbs : Focusing on Ao(熬) and Chao(炒)

Typological shift of Mandarin Chinese in terms of motion verb lexicalization pattern

Abstract Given the controversies over Mandarin Chinese in terms of Talmy’s bipartite language typology, this paper presents an exhaustive study of Chinese motion verbs collected from two authoritative dictionaries, namely, The Ancient Chinese Dictionary (2nd Edition) and The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (7th Edition). An analysis of 662 motion verbs in ancient Chinese and 693 motion verbs in modern Chinese indicates that Mandarin Chinese has undergone a typological shift from verb-framed to satellite-framed as far as the lexicalization pattern is concerned. The typological shift seems to have been driven by two forces, the decline of monosyllabic motion verbs and the upsurge of disyllabic motion verbs, which, upon second thoughts, can be boiled down to a single but predominant process of disyllabification in Chinese, whereby two (former) roots that bear a wide range of syntactic relations are lexicalized into a disyllabic word. Thus, we see an intriguing case of how phonology and morphosyntax interact to impact the typological properties of a language.

현대중국어 동사 ‘打’의 다의성과 영상도식 변형 연구

현대중국어 동사 ‘打’의 다의성과 영상도식 변형 연구

Effect of prototypicality and dual route processing modal on instructed second language acquisition of Chinese resultative verb compounds

Abstract The present study investigates the processing of Chinese Resultative Verb Compounds (RVCs) in second language (L2) learners. It focuses on the role of prototypicality of component morphemes and whole-word token frequency in L2 acquisition of Chinese RVCs in a formal instructional setting. Chinese RVC is an important linguistic item in Chinese as second or foreign language (CSL/CFL). Cognitive psychology and other areas of research have found that both components of compound and whole word have effect on compound identification. Based on these findings, Pollatsek and his fellows (2000) proposed dual route processing modal (DRPM) which claimed that both the frequency of components and whole-word frequency have effect on compound identification. However, as regards the frequency effect, more empirical evidences showed that prototypicality is a better indicator than frequency in predicting the acquisition of compound. This study aims to explore the effect of formal instruction, prototypicality of components and whole word frequency on RVC identification. By adopting Zhang. (2023. [Forthcoming] Morphological prototypicality of Chinese verb compound and components. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics)’s hierarchy of prototypical V1s and RCs, forty two students in two intact classes from Malaysia secondary school participate in a prestest-intervention-posttest research. According to finding in the quasi-experiment study, prototype-based DRPM is proposed with the pedagogical implications that might be conducive to the area of CSL/CFL learning.

말뭉치 및 교재 분석 기반의 중국어 동량사(動量詞) 교육 고찰

말뭉치 및 교재 분석 기반의 중국어 동량사(動量詞) 교육 고찰

Diachronic Evolution and Synchronic Distribution of the Words Meaning “Paste” Semantic Verbs in Chinese

Diachronic Evolution and Synchronic Distribution of the Words Meaning “Paste” Semantic Verbs in Chinese