Disyllabic Verbs Research Articles

The Semantic Characteristics Analysis about Complement of Rusule “wan” and “hao”

On the basis of previous studies, this paper analyzes the semantic characteristics of the result complement “V-wan” and “V-hao”. The semantic characteristics of the verbs entering “V-wan” and “V-hao” are different, which leads to the different semantic characteristics of the verbs entering the two verb-complement structures.BR The ratio of “V-wan” can be replaced by “V-hao” accounts for 46%, and the exchange ratio is not high, indicating that the internal structure of the two dynamic compensation structures is very different. Verbs with the meaning of “uncontrollable”, “negative” and “instant” are difficult to match harmoniously with the “good” states, and can only enter the “V-wan” structure. Double-syllable verbs that enter the “V-hao” structure account for 57%, which is relatively large. The reason is that the specific action of disyllabic verbs is weak, and many disyllabic verbs have the meaning of “static”, which can be harmoniously matched with “good” indicating the state.BR “V-wan” is the completion of “quantity”. In this process, “quantity” is gradually decreasing, a reduction, and an objective statement of events; “V-hao” is the realization of “quality”. In this process, “quality” is gradually increasing, is an increment, is the subjective evaluation of the event.

PROSPECTIVE INDONESIAN EFL TEACHERS’ PROBLEMS IN PLACING VERB STRESS

In creating successful communication, pronunciation is one aspect which should be mastered well by EFL learners, particularly by prospective teachers who will later become role models for their students. One of the essential pronunciation features is stress. Although sometimes neglected, stress is said to have necessary implication for one’s speaking skills. This study attempted to reveal the problems in verb stress placement encountered by prospective Indonesian EFL teachers. The data were obtained from the recording of their class presentations. The verbs uttered during the presentations were categorized into verb types depending on the number of syllables, i.e. disyllabic verbs, trisyllabic verbs, and tetrasyllabic (or longer) verbs, and then analyzed in terms of their pronunciation accuracy. From the analysis, it could be concluded that there were two kinds of problems in placing verb stress which the prospective Indonesian EFL teachers encountered, namely they misplaced the stress and they put double stresses on a verb. Most of them put the stress on syllables which could not obtain any stresses, such as suffixes. Meanwhile, some others put double stresses on either trisyllabic verbs or verbs with four or more syllables, where, in fact, such stresses could only be obtained by disyllabic verbs.

The derivative structure of Mandarin disyllabic verbs

Abstract With detailed examinations of the four characters that are known to be the most commonly used verb suffixes (huà, dé/de, yú and yĭ) and their correlative implementations in Mandarin disyllabic verbs, this article discusses the traits of the derivative structure that are formed with a content morpheme and a suffix. The observations show that not all of the disyllabic words where these characters are the second morpheme are derivative verbs. On the other hand, being the derivational components of the disyllabic verbs, these suffixes all have their individual qualities that lead to their non-uniformed morphological representations.

Latvian verbs in -ēt: semantics vs. conjugation

The conjugation of secondary Latvian verbs is determined with high accuracy by their suffixes. However, verbs with the suffix -ē- are different: they are more or less equally divided between the traditional second and third conjugations. The article sets out to prove or disprove the hypothesis that the assignment of Latvian verbs with the suffix -ē- to a specific conjugation correlates with their semantics. For that purpose, 705 disyllabic verbs ending in -ēt were collected and marked by their origin, transitivity, and conjugation. Verbs that are not obvious borrowings were then divided into semantic classes. As a result of the semantic classification, the working hypothesis was confirmed: second conjugation verbs ending in -ēt predominantly denote agentive actions (creation, destruction, modification, etc.), whereas third conjugation verbs usually denote phenomena, processes, states, and sound production. The results suggest that the Latvian verbal system exhibits a close interrelation between semantics and morphology.

The Error Analysis and Teaching Strategies of the Synonymous Monosyllabic and Disyllabic Verbs in Chinese Language for Korean Learners

“Monosyllabic and Disyllabic Word” is a kind of word that morphemes which construct the disyllabic verb have the similar meaning with each other, and each of them also has the similar meaning with disyllabic word combined by them. Monosyllabic and Disyllabic Word is a one of the synonym types that second language learners often feel confused when they acquire Chinese Vocabulary. In this paper, I extracted 78sets of Synonymous Monosyllabic and Disyllabic Verbs from the <HSK vocabulary> in A,B two levels of vocabulary, and through the extraction of the error examples from the <HSK writing corpus>, this paper tried to analyzed the types of Errors and the effective teaching method for the Synonymous Monosyllabic and Disyllabic Verbal Morpheme to the Korean Learners.

Interactions between prosody and morphosyntax in Fuzhou VO phrases

Abstract This study examines how tone sandhi domains (TSDs) are determined in Fuzhou. The data include: (i) regular verb-object phrases (VOs) where the verb takes a direct bare noun object; and (ii) non-canonical VOs where the verb takes an adverbial expression as a surface object. Several observations are made. First, a three-way sandhi exists within every TSD. All antepenultimate syllables neutralize to low tones. A penultimate syllable’s sandhi tone is dependent on the final syllable’s citation tone, which remains unchanged. Second, in regular VOs, a monosyllabic verb consistently forms a single TSD with its direct bare noun object, but a disyllabic verb and its object are separated into two TSDs. Third, in non-canonical VOs, a monosyllabic verb never forms a single TSD with its adverbial object. Three questions are raised. First, what is the nature of each TSD? Second, why does the number of syllables in a verb determine the distinct TSDs formed in regular VOs? Third, how can we account for the different patterns of TSD formation in two types of VOs? We propose that each TSD equals to a prosodic word (PrWd). OT analyses are provided to show how PrWds are derived. The analysis of regular VOs relies on the ranking of a prosodic markedness constraint ft bin above the word-level interface correspondence constraints. The contrast between two types of VOs is explained by applying the model of Multiple Spell-Out and a cyclic interaction of morphosyntax and prosody. This approach is new in explaining the TSDs that are constrained by morphosyntax.

浅析现代汉语双音节动词加 “地” 作状语中的搭配问题 ― 从 “微笑地说” 谈起

浅析现代汉语双音节动词加 “地” 作状语中的搭配问题 ― 从 “微笑地说” 谈起

The morphology of Chinese disyllabic verbs

AbstractWith a close examination of the characteristics of Chinese monosyllables, i.e., the base morphemes that form the disyllabic verbs, this article discusses the morphological traits these characteristics bring to disyllabic compound verbs. The two distinctive characteristics of the Chinese monosyllables, namely, being morphologically independent and highly polysemous, give rise to unusual phenomena in disyllabic verbs, most representatively the headedness of coordinative compound verbs. The Chinese language not only has various possible forms of headedness, but also allows the same compound verbs to be both endocentric and exocentric.

Does lexical stress influence 17-month-olds' mapping of verbs and nouns?

English-learning infants attend to lexical stress when learning new words. Attention to lexical stress might be beneficial for word learning by providing an indication of the grammatical class of that word. English disyllabic nouns commonly have trochaic (strong-weak) stress, whereas English disyllabic verbs commonly have iambic (weak-strong) stress. We explored whether 17-month-old infants use word stress to resolve an ambiguous labeling event where objects and actions are equally plausible referents. Infants were habituated to 2 words paired with 2 objects, with each object performing a distinct path action. They were subsequently tested on (a) a change in object but not path action or (b) a change in path action but not the object. When infants were taught verb-friendly iambic labels, their looking times increased both when the action switched and when the object switched. Infants who were taught noun-friendly trochaic labels demonstrated an increase in looking time only when the object switched. These results demonstrate that in ambiguous labeling events infants map iambic labels to both actions and objects, and trochaic labels to the objects but not to the actions, suggesting a bias for words with trochaic stress to refer to objects. Seventeen-month-old infants can use trochaic lexical stress to guide their word learning in ambiguous situations, but iambic stress cues may not preferentially guide infants' mappings of actions or objects. (PsycINFO Database Record

Acoustic phonetic measurements of grammatical tones in Anyi

Talkers and hearers of Anyi, a West African language of the Akan family, are very adept at discriminating between sentences containing verbs conjugated in the indicative, the intentional, and the subjunctive moods just by relying on subtle variations in pitch. A phonetic investigation is undertaken to determine as precisely as possible the acoustic cues that contribute the most to intelligibility. Ten speakers produced five sentences each in all three moods for a total of 150 utterances. The tone bearing units (TBU) on the subject pronoun and the disyllabic verbs are analyzed acoustically. The acoustic correlates investigated are F0, intensity, and duration. All in all, 810 TBUS are measured. The main findings are as follows. The F0 of the subject pronoun and of the verb are the most robust cues for discriminating between the declarative and the intentional moods. The differentiation between the intentional and the subjunctive moods rests principally on the F0 of the subject pronoun. The distinction betwe...

Reconstructing stress in Proto-Tibetan

This paper offers a synchronic description of stress patterns in two conservative varieties of Tibetan, and a diachronic reconstruction of stress patterns in Proto-Tibetan. For both Balti and Rebkong Amdo, stress falls on the second syllable (σ2) of disyllabic non-verbs — nouns, adjectives, and numerals. Through the method of “historical comparative prosody”, σ2 stress is likewise reconstructed for disyllabic non-verbs in Proto-Tibetan. Disyllabic verbs are never stressed on σ2. For Balti, robust evidence shows that they are stressed on the first syllable (σ1). Limited data for Rebkong Amdo suggests the same pattern. Thus σ1 stress is tentatively reconstructed for verbs in Proto-Tibetan. These reconstructed Proto-Tibetan stress patterns are of diachronic significance. They have reflexes in the tone patterns of the modern spoken varieties of Tibetan (Caplow 2009); in future research, it may be possible to trace them back to prosodic patterns higher up in the Tibeto-Burman and Sino-Tibetan family trees.

Processing Rhythmic Pattern during Chinese Sentence Reading: An Eye Movement Study.

Prosodic constraints play a fundamental role during both spoken sentence comprehension and silent reading. In Chinese, the rhythmic pattern of the verb-object (V-O) combination has been found to rapidly affect the semantic access/integration process during sentence reading (Luo and Zhou, 2010). Rhythmic pattern refers to the combination of words with different syllabic lengths, with certain combinations disallowed (e.g., [2 + 1]; numbers standing for the number of syllables of the verb and the noun respectively) and certain combinations preferred (e.g., [1 + 1] or [2 + 2]). This constraint extends to the situation in which the combination is used to modify other words. A V-O phrase could modify a noun by simply preceding it, forming a V-O-N compound; when the verb is disyllabic, however, the word order has to be O-V-N and the object is preferred to be disyllabic. In this study, we investigated how the reader processes the rhythmic pattern and word order information by recording the reader's eye-movements. We created four types of sentences by crossing rhythmic pattern and word order in compounding. The compound, embedding a disyllabic verb, could be in the correct O-V-N or the incorrect V-O-N order; the object could be disyllabic or monosyllabic. We found that the reader spent more time and made more regressions on and after the compounds when either type of anomaly was detected during the first pass reading. However, during re-reading (after all the words in the sentence have been viewed), less regressive eye movements were found for the anomalous rhythmic pattern, relative to the correct pattern; moreover, only the abnormal rhythmic pattern, not the violated word order, influenced the regressive eye movements. These results suggest that while the processing of rhythmic pattern and word order information occurs rapidly during the initial reading of the sentence, the process of recovering from the rhythmic pattern anomaly may ease the reanalysis processing at the later stage of sentence integration. Thus, rhythmic pattern in Chinese can dynamically affect both local phrase analysis and global sentence integration during silent reading.

Asymmetric Correlations between English Verb Transitivity and Stress

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A prosodic analysis of monosyllabic and disyllabic verb reduplication in Twi (Akan)

This paper argues that, in Twi (Akan), the shape of a reduplicant, and the resulting segmental processes and reduplicated output are largely determined by its input's inherent tone and the ‘strength’ of its syllables; an argument in support of Mophological Doubling Theory (MDT) (Inkelas and Zoll 2005) within which the reduplicant like its base has access to the input. This observation led to the classification of disyllabic verb inputs into two: a low-toned group with a contrastive, and a non-contrastive, syllable; and, a low-high-toned group with two contrastive syllables. Non-contrastive syllables are banned from the reduplicant, which is why reduplicants of the former group are monosyllabic, and, respect *[−High] (McCarthy and Prince 1995) just like monosyllabic verbs' reduplicants. Their final segment(s) are unparsed, and are deleted without compensatory lengthening, except in cases where the final segment becomes homorganic with the following consonant. The latter group's reduplicants are disyllabic with every segment parsed; homorganic assimilation of the reduplicant-final segment applies optionally; and, with the loss of (a) reduplicant-final segment(s), vowel lengthening applies to avoid a monosyllabic reduplicant and, consequently, *[−High]. *[−High] applies to distinguish outputs of the former group from outputs of monosyllabic/disyllabic adjectives. The ranking argument, *Contour ≫ Align LH ≫ Tone Polarity ≫ Tone Spread, derives output tones.

Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar (review)

Reviewed by: Chinese: A comprehensive grammar by Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington Edward J. Vajda Chinese: A comprehensive grammar. By Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington. (Routledge comprehensive grammars.) London: Routledge, 2004. Pp. xviii, 418. ISBN 0415150329. $52.95. This concise yet detailed treatment of Standard Mandarin Chinese focuses almost entirely upon diverse aspects of phrase and sentence construction. It is not a basic learner’s grammar with a graduated presentation of material. Lacking any introduction to the phonology or writing, this book is intended for those already familiar with some form of Chinese orthography. All examples appear in Pinyin as well as in the simplified characters employed in the People’s Republic of China since 1956. This makes the reference material easily accessible to native speakers as well as to general linguists or students who have already studied some Chinese. Each of the book’s twenty-seven chapters covers a specific facet of phrase or sentence structure, beginning with noun phrases and ending with an overview of stylistic considerations. Much attention is paid to describing how syntactic constructions are actually employed by contemporary speakers. The coverage of functional sentence perspective and other discourse aspects of languages contains valuable insights not found in other references to Chinese grammar. One useful feature is the book’s functional division of declarative sentence patterns into four basic types: narrative (those that recount past actions in an epistemically neutral fashion), descriptive (those that portray ongoing actions), evaluative (those that relate the speaker’s judgment of a situation), and expository sentences. The last category is defined as ‘factual statements that offer some sort of explanation for actual situations or experiences’ (306) and includes sentences ending in the particle le, which marks speaker awareness of a new situation. These four categories entail formal distinctions in syntactic arrangement unique to Chinese grammar, so that their explication is essential to a basic understanding of the language’s syntax. Another valuable feature is the book’s clear explanation of how prosodic factors interact with syntactic patterns. For example, because spoken Chinese tends to require a prosodic alternation of heavy vs. light emphasis on successive syllables, a Chinese sentence can end with a monosyllabic verb plus monosyllabic or disyllabic object, but not with a disyllabic verb plus monosyllabic object (385–87). This accounts for the presence in the language of numerous monosyllabic vs. disyllabic synonyms. For example, the nouns shū and shūjí, both meaning ‘books’, appear in different rhythmic environments: kàn shū or kàn shūjí ‘read books’ but only liúlăn shūjí ‘browse books’ and not *liúlăn shū. The rhythmic pattern in Chinese sentence structure entails a ‘phonosyntactic’ layer that is completely lacking in most other languages. This important feature of the grammar is given full coverage here. Other highlights include clear, thorough discussions of measure words, passive constructions, techniques of conveying old vs. new information and definite vs. indefinite reference, and the use of particles, coverbs, adverbials, and postpositions. The authors’ theoretical approach is refreshingly eclectic, with an almost complete lack of formalistic jargon. Grammatical terms and categories specific to Chinese are clearly explained as they arise. I would highly recommend this book to any intermediate or advanced student who hopes to master the patterns used to generate phrases and sentences in contemporary Standard Mandarin Chinese. Edward J. Vajda Western Washington University Copyright © 2006 Linguistic Society of America

The importance of word order in explaining tone patterns in Avokaya verbs

This paper presents a set of ordered rules accounting for tone changes that occur in Avokaya verbs. The most prevalent shape for Avokaya verbs is monosyllabic. Disyllabic verbs roots behave the same way as disyllabic verbs which are composed of a derivational prefix plus a monosyllabic verb root. The derivational prefixation process is the same for verbs in all grammatical constructions. Verbs in SVO constructions and SOV constructions are treated separately, since different rules apply for these two sets of constructions. Avokaya syllables may carry a high, mid, low or rising tone, but not a falling tone. In this analysis of Avokaya, we show that the expected HL tone pattern has merged to form a M tone in the verbal system.

Knowledge of the English Noun–Verb Stress Difference by Native and Nonnative Speakers

This research tested native and nonnative English speakers in their knowledge of the tendency for disyllabic English nouns to have first-syllable stress and disyllabic verbs to have second-syllable stress. Experiment 1 showed that nonnative speakers are nearly as accurate as native speakers in identifying the intended stress pattern of disyllabic words. Hence they have the perceptual prerequisite for learning the noun-verb stress difference. In Experiment 2, both native and nonnative subjects used disyllabic pseudowords as verbs in sentences more often when they had second rather than first syllable stress. In Experiment 3, nonnative speakers classified words as nouns or verbs more quickly and accurately if they had stress patterns typical of their grammatical class. Native speakers showed the same patterns, but not significantly. None of the experiments found correlations between English experience variables and effects of the noun–verb stress difference. We discuss why nonnative acquisition of vocabulary is relatively resistant to sensitive period effects.

Rhythm and language change in English

Disyllabic English nouns tend to be stressed on the first syllable, whereas disyllabic verbs tend to be stressed on the second syllable. In concert with other papers, this report argues that the stress asymmetry was partially caused by two factors: (1) a rhythmic preference for alternations between strong and weak beats, and (2) contextual differences between nouns and verbs that bias verbs toward second syllable stress. In particular, verbs are more likely than nouns to receive inflections that take a syllabic form. Because such syllabic inflections are weakly stressed, their appearance on disyllabic words with first syllable stress will produce two consecutive unstressed syllables. Verbs might therefore be pressured toward second syllable stress, which would establish rhythmic alternation. Prior research has found that stress assignments of disyllabic pseudowords acting as verbs can be modified in the predicted ways through syllabic -ed and -ing inflections. The experiments reported here extend these findings to (1) nouns, (2) plural and third person present singular -es, and (3) actual English words. A final experiment indicates that the locus of the alternation preference is in speech perception and not speech production. The discussion examines reasons why other modifications that could create rhythmic alternation are not observed, the implications of the analysis for stress patterns on trisyllabic English words, and implications of the noun-verb stress difference for one type of language creativity. The paper in general illustrates how basic research in psycholinguistics can be used to study long-term structural changes in language.

Rhythmic alternation and lexical stress differences in English

An account is given for the evolution of strong-weak (trochaic) stress on disyllabic English nouns and weak-strong (iambic) stress on disyllabic English verbs. This explanation draws on two claims: (1) Language users adjust the stress patterns on words so that alternations between strong and weak beats are created (the principle of rhythmic alternation) and (2) Nouns and verbs tend to appear in different rhythmic contexts, such that verbs are more likely than nouns to be biased toward iambic stress. Analyses of spoken and written samples of English revealed that disyllabic verbs were more likely than disyllabic nouns to receive an inflection that adds a syllable onto the word. Because such syllables are weakly stressed, rhythmic alternation would be created if the disyllabic word received stress on the second syllable (e.g., “suggesting”) rather than the first (“promising”). Two experiments showed that stress assignments on pseudowords such as “cortand” are in fact varied depending on the syllabic nature of inflections added to the words. In addition, the text analyses and experiments can account for specific subpatterns within the noun-verb stress asymmetry as well as the general asymmetry itself. Implications of these findings for theories of word stress are discussed, as well as the more general point that patterns of language change can be understood in terms of language processing at the level of the individual speaker or listener.

Stress in time.

The goals of this research were to determine whether speakers adjust the stress patterns of words within sentences to create an alternation between strong and weak beats and to explore whether this rhythmic alternation contributes to the characteristics stress differences between two major lexical categories of English. Two experiments suggested that speakers do alter lexical stress in accordance with rhythmic biases. When speakers produced disyllabic pseudowords in sentence contexts, they were more likely to place stress on the first syllable when the pseudoword was preceded by a weak stress and followed by a strong one than when the strong stress preceded and the weak followed. This occurred both when the pseudowords served as nouns and when they served as verbs. Text analyses further revealed that weakly stressed elements precede nouns more often than verbs, whereas such elements follow verbs more often than nouns. Thus, disyllabic nouns are more likely than disyllabic verbs to occupy contexts biased toward trochaic rhythm, a finding consistent with leftward dominant stress in disyllabic English nouns. The history of stress changes in English nouns and verbs also conforms with the view that rhythmic context may have contributed to the evolution of stress differences. Together, the findings suggest that the citation stress patterns of words may to some degree reflect adaptations of lexical knowledge to conditions of language performance.