Middle Construction Research Articles

Dispositional middle constructions with accusative objects in Slovenian

This paper provides a study of an impersonal type of dispositional middle construction that appears in Slovenian. This impersonal construction atypically contains an undemoted thematic external argument in syntax, but nevertheless ascribes a disposition to the internal one in semantics, which goes against previous assumptions about the way in which syntax and semantics interact in middles. On the basis of this Slovenian construction, the paper develops a new syntactic and semantic analysis of the modal phrase whose head contributes the dispositional interpretation and assigns it to the internal argument. The paper shows how such an analysis accounts for both non-canonical Slovenian middles with syntactically realised external arguments as well as the more prototypical middles without external arguments both in Slovenian and English. Finally, the paper proposes why the external argument in the Slovenian impersonal middle is – exceptionally – not an intervener for the dispositional assignment.

On the subject-orientation of the dispositional middle construction

Abstract This article argues against the claim that the dispositional middle construction is always subject-oriented, by discussing dispositional constructions in Japanese and impersonal middle constructions formed with the causative verb lassen ‘let’ in German. In Japanese, the disposition is ascribed not to the nominative subject, but to an object. In German, nominative subjects are not required. This suggests that subject orientedness is not inherent but arises from the properties of independently existing constructions that are interpeted as dispositional. In English and German, an intransitive or a reflexive construction derived from its transitive variant is employed as a canonical middle construction. In these cases, the accusative argument becomes a nominative subject by applying specific grammatical operations; thus, the expression of a subject becomes obligatory. In contrast, a potential construction is interpreted as dispositional in Japanese in which case the disposition is typically ascribed to the object with nominative case, which is almost obligatory in Japanese. It follows that the target of the disposition in middle constructions is a grammatically “highlighted” event participant, as in the case of root modals.

Verbs of cutting in the middle construction: Examining the compositional cospecification of patientive vs. Agent-instrument middles

The purpose of this paper is to examine both prototypical Ergative-like middles (e.g. The cake cuts well) and their metonymically-motivated extensions, called Agent-Instrument middles (e.g. The saw cuts like a dream). The former incorporate as subjects patientive entities and the latter instruments. Both structures allow the incorporation of verbs of cutting, but they represent divergent portions of the action chain, and thus, they differ in the nature of their subject entities and their processes of compositional cospecification in terms of qualia structure. On the whole, on the basis of the prototype effects of the middle construction analysed here, they should be considered proper middles. This paper is based on a corpus study of contextualised examples (1700+) to examine their collostructional schema in the English middle construction (cf. Stefanowitsch and Gries 2003). Particularly, we explore the Verb + Adverb collocation found in middles by focusing on 29 predicates belonging to Levin’s (1993: 156) class of verbs of cutting, in combination with facility-/quality-oriented adjuncts (cf. Davidse and Heyvaert, 2007). Following a cognitive perspective, this paper examines the semantic roles of the subject referents analysed (patients and instruments), as well as their distinct processes of compositional cospecification as factors that contribute to the prototype effects of the middle construction. On the basis of corpus data, despite the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic common schemas found in prototypical Ergative-like middles and Agent-Instrument middles, the prototype effects of the middle construction highlight the divergent processes of compositional cospecification that these two types of middles follow. More specifically, a shift of semantic weight from a telic to a constitutive value occurs in Agent-Instrument middles, while there is lack of such a semantic shift in terms of qualia structure in prototypical Ergative-like middles with patientive subjects. Thus the middle construction cannot be considered as a discrete category of its own, but rather a prototype category (cf. Taylor, 1995; Hundt, 2007) that permits the accommodation of central and peripheral members. Consequently, in addition to the traditionally accepted structures in which the subject referent is a patientive entity, other less archetypal nominals can occur as middle subjects, particularly, instruments whose action affects implied and patientive entities.

Middle Verbs and Their Acquisition

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the L2 learners’ acquisition of middle constructions. One of the properties of middle constructions is that the subject of middle verbs must be a definite NP. Middle verbs can occur by revealing an intrinsic characteristic or property of the definite NP. In addition, middle verbs can only occur along with short adverbs such as well and easily. In this paper, we conduct a survey and evaluate the L2 learners’ responses to middle verbs. More specifically, we have examined how the L2 learners acquired the abstract constraint, the middle construction condition, the definite DP condition, and the adverb constraint. It is worth noting that 45% of the adult subjects acquired the definite condition, 32.5% of the L2 learners acquired the middle construction condition, 50% of the adult subjects acquired the abstract noun constraint, and 20% of the L2 learners acquired the adverb constraint. This in turn indicates that that the abstract noun constraint was first acquired by the adult subjects, followed by the definite DP condition, the middle construction condition, and the adverb constraint, in that order. With regard to middle verbs, it is significant to note that English are subject to the abstract noun constraint, the middle construction condition, the definite DP condition, and the adverb constraint, whereas Korean is not subject to the abstract noun constraint, the middle construction condition, and the definite DP condition. This in turn suggests that Korean is a superset language, compared to English. Thus, learning difficulty arises. Finally, this paper argues that unlike Chomsky’s UG hypothesis (Chomsky 1981, 1982, 2019a, 2019b), the L2 learners looked for similarities between L1 and L2 and thus relied on their L1.

A Study on the Middle Construction in Mandarin Chinese--A Prototype Middle Construction Perspective

English middle construction (MC) is one of the most heatedly discussed language phenomenon, however, disagreements and inconsistencies still exist among scholars as for the research scope of the Chinese MC. Based on the prototype elements of English MC, this paper compares the features of those constructions in different scholars’ paper and pin down which one is the prototype of Chinese MC and offer an order of their closeness to the prototype. Findings and explanations are demonstrated as follows: firstly, under the framework of prototype theory, it is argued that MC has its own prototype. The author assumes” the bread slices smoothly” as the English prototype for the high frequency of being cited at discussing the related topics of MC in literature. The prototypical properties of prototype elements are presented below: (1) implicit agent; (2) active in form; (3) simple present tense; (4) patient subject; (5) primary responsibility of subject; (6) adverb and experiencer sub-role of agent; (7) the aspect of the middle verb is either activity or accomplishment verb; (8) general modality reading; (9) causative and affected subject. Secondly, a closer look at Chinese MC is conducted, which reveals that different scholars have different ideas on what kind of construction is Chinese MC. Taking the prototype elements of prototypical English middle construction as criterion, the author compares the constructions in those scholars’ paper with them and finds out that they share different number of features. Construction in Yu &Si’s paper and parts of construction in Cao’s paper are regarded as typical Chinese MC because they share all the prototype elements of prototypical English MC. Their closeness to the prototype depends on the number of similarities they have in common. The author ranks these constructions from the most typical member to the worst member in the following order: Yu &Si, He, Chen, Ding, Cao, and GU. They structure around the prototype and exhibit graded centrality to the prototype. Thirdly, this paper also explains why the same construction can be classified into different grammatical categories, to be more specific, why the construction in Ding’s paper is regarded as notional-passives and construction in Chen’s paper is classified into the grammatical category of tough construction. According to prototype theory, category has fuzzy boundaries and a category may merge with neighboring category, therefore, MC merges with notional-passives and tough construction for they have overlapping areas.

Construções reflexiva, recíproca e média de clítico nulo no português brasileiro reconceptualização de eventos e emergência de uma nova construção

tuguese se constructions, posited in the transitive continuum, have a constructional counterpart in which the clitic is absent. The null clitic construction, observed in all the seconstructions (i.e. reflexive, reciprocal, middle, anticausative, passive and impersonal) is more frequently used in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) than in European Portuguese (EP). The phenomenon has largely been studied from a morphosyntatic lens or as a result of an ongoing deletion of clitics in BP, shying away from the possible implications in terms of the semantic differentiation between overt and null se constructions. This chapter focuses on reflexive, reciprocal and middle se constructions and aims to investigate what factors determine the choice between overt seconstructions and their null counterpart. Based on an extensive usage-feature and profile-based analysis, and using multivariate statistical methods, we show that reflexive, reciprocal and middle null se constructions are associated with a reconceptualization of an event as non-energetic or absolute, profiling the result of the event. On the other hand, the overt counterpart profiles the moment of change, construing the event as energetic. Reflexive and reciprocal constructions are more frequently encoded by an overt se construction whereas middle construction (in all its subcategories) is more frequently encoded by the null se construction. The study concludes that null reflexive, reciprocal and middle se constructions are new constructions semantically differentiated from overt se constructions, which, we argue, has wider implications, namely for reconceptualization of voice patterns in BP which tend towards ergativization.

韩国语动词‘먹다(吃)’的中动构式

본고는 한국어 동사 ‘먹다’가 의미확장 과정에서 생겨난 자동사 용법, 즉 ‘먹다’의 논항이 목적어에서 주어로 변이하는 중간구문에 대하여 분석하였다. 그리고 범언어적 조사를 통하여 동사 ‘먹다’가 중간구문 형식을 갖는 것은 한국어에서만 존재하는 현상임을 밝혔다. 한국어 동 사 ‘먹다’의 중간구문은 ‘이/그/저(지시대명사)+NP가/이(주격표지)/은/는(화제표지)/+ADV+ 먹는다’로 실현된다. 본고는 중간동사 ‘먹다’의 생성과정과 중간구문의 통사, 의미, 화용특징 및 생성기제 등을 고찰하였다.

English vis-à-vis Italian Aspectual Verb Constructions: The Case of Continuative Aspectualizers

This paper provides an initial analysis of continuative aspectualizers from a contrastive English-Italian perspective. The aim is to investigate the areas of overlap and contrast in terms of the lexico-syntactic behaviour and semantic scope of the main continuative verbs in the two languages, i.e., keep, continue, proceed, resume vs. (man)tenere, continuare, procedere, riprendere. The focus will also be on the identification of the cognitive factors that interact with the prototypical features of these predicates, licensing or blocking the constructions types that can embed them. Two primary mapping operations, namely metonymy and metaphor, will be observed to motivate the behaviour of continuative aspectualizers in transitive and intransitive constructions as well as in less common patterns, such as the middle, reflexive and resultative construction.

THE INTERNATIONAL FORM IN THE WORLD OF THE WORLD OF THE WEST EUROPE AND FORTIFICATION ART OF THE CRUSADERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST OF THE XIth AND XIIIth CENTURY

The main purpose of the study is to conduct architectural and historical analysis of the formation of medieval feudal castles as a phenomenon of chivalrous culture of Europe and the Middle East. The task of the study is to analyze the general and special in the evolution of forms in the castle architecture of Western Europe and the Jerusalem medieval kingdom. Creation of architectural and historical typology of castle forms that existed in the regions of medieval Western Europe and the Levant. In the course of the analysis of the formation of Middle Eastern castle complexes of the 12th - 13th century. found that on the one hand they were traditionally based on cultural and construction practices, Introduced to the regions of the Levant by European knights ‒ tower-donjon type of castle, which arose during the conquest in the areas of Israel, Palestine and Syria, on the other ‒ somewhat different from the architectural traditions of Western Europe, local technologies for processing stone quads, the construction of walls that have a boot, the use of cement solution, the creation of a tower-shaped building at the towers-don having a significant amount. Applied in the Middle East construction innovations with the active use of Romano-Byzantine traditions, getting to the territory of Western Europe, developed a chivalrous culture of castle building. As a result of cultural and historical analysis of European and Middle Eastern castle forms of the 12th and 13th century. it was determined that a better system of protection ‒ small wall niches, vaulted system of overlaps ‒ was introduced into the European fortification art by returning crusader knights. Thanks to the acquired building experience, the Crusaders in Western Europe were introduced to a new type of castle, the castel, which was borrowed from the old Roman-Byzantine military architecture during the conquest of the Levant. Based on the study of European castle forms, it was revealed that the new composition of the castle was introduced by knights-pilgrims from the middle east to the lands of Western and Central Europe, where it got its development, thanks to the French masters-fortifiers who formed this classic castle type in the 13th - 15th centuries.

A construction-based account of the synchrony and diachrony of the Chinese middle construction

Abstract Chinese middle construction (Chinese MC) uses the form ‘N+V+qilai+C’ to express passive meaning. This study has shown that Chinese MC’s internal connections can be reflected by its synchronic hierarchy. Chinese MC expands horizontally through argument structure and vertically through semantics and its expansion mechanism can be explained by the varying abstraction model of categorization which combines the prototype and the exemplar model. This study has also validated the truth that Chinese MC is a concept encompassing unclear boundaries within its members by using the schematic network model which is the combination of the radial set model and the overlapping set model to represent the internal connections of Chinese MC. By connecting Chinese MC with patient-subject sentences, this study has shown that the expansion of Chinese MC is affected by other structures. Finally, this study has unveiled the affinity between constructionalization and grammaticalization by examining how Chinese MC relates to V-qilai’s grammaticalization.

An Overview of the Studies on the Generation of Typical Middle Construction

This paper mainly takes an overview of previous studies on the generation of middle constructions. First is the introduction of the research background of the generation of middle constructions. Then the author describes the main syntactic features of typical middle constructions, followed by an overview of previous studies on this construction It can be seen that each study has its advantages and disadvantages. Through this review, the author advise to study the middle construction from different aspects because of its complexity. Through this review, the author hopes to find some space for future study.

难易类中动句的多视角考察

This paper defines the Chinese middle construction, and compares two types of typical middle constructions expressing degree of difficulty in terms of the restrictive conditions of verbs and modifiers, the discourse structure, the parallel constructions, the syllabic collocations, the stylistic tendencies, and the two sentence patterns being “NP+V-qilai+AP

认知构式语法视阈下的英汉中动构式对比研究

认知构式语法视阈下的英汉中动构式对比研究

漢韓中動結構對比硏究

Middle Construction is a structure between initiative and passivity. Its subject is non agent component, while predicate verb is active form. Although the Middle Construction is active in form, it actually expresses passive meaning. The syntactic and semantic mismatch of Middle Constructions has attracted much attention from various linguists, and has been a hot topic in grammar research since the 80s of last century. The field of academic research mainly focuses on the formation of the middle dynamic structure, the cognitive motivation, the syntactic and semantic features, and the construction and sentence conditions of the middle verb, but some of the problems have not reached a consensus until now. The middle dynamic structure is the syntactic realization of the middle verb in different languages. It is also a universal and cross linguistic phenomenon. The study of the language phenomenon is of typological significance.BR Chinese shows a more obvious view based on the object, while Korean shows a more obvious view based on the main body. Because the Middle Construction is the weakening of the practice, the difference between the cognitive perspective and the cognitive perspective determines the dynamic structure of the Korean language, the Chinese Middle construction is more productive, the content of the expression can be more rich, and the applicable context is more. There are similarities and differences between Chinese and Korean Middle Constructions. Their differences are determined by the different linguistic attributes of Chinese and Korean.

The Middle Construction in Minimalist Syntax: English and Slovenian

The paper discusses the argument structure of the English middle construction and its Slovenian equivalent from the perspective of minimalist syntax. The paper first introduces Bruening’s (2012) recent approach to syntactic middle formation, which posits that middle sentences are derived via an operator that existentially quantifies over the open agent variable introduced by an active Voice projection. Subsequently, the paper argues that the adverbial modifier in the middle construction is not a semantic argument of the null operator, contra Bruening (2012). Finally, the paper proposes that the reflexive morpheme se in the related Slovenian se-sentences plays a role of valency reduction similar to that of the null English operator.

The originality of the modern Ukrainian church oeuvre: on an example of the chants «All-night Vigil» Olena Yunek. Formulation of the problem

The originality of the modern Ukrainian church oeuvre: on an example of the chants «All-night Vigil» Olena Yunek. Formulation of the problem

The originality of the modern Ukrainian church oeuvre: on an example of the chants «All-night Vigil» Olena Yunek. Formulation of the problem

The originality of the modern Ukrainian church oeuvre: on an example of the chants «All-night Vigil» Olena Yunek. Formulation of the problem

Language change and cultural change: The grammaticalization of the get-passive in context

Reciprocal and reflexive ('middle') readings of the get-passive (as in get introduced, get married, get dressed or get shaved) have been taken as indicative of the status of the get-passive as a middle construction more generally. Historically, this interpretation is misleading, as these (marginal) get-passives refer to cultural practices that have undergone massive change between the time of the inception of the get-passive (before the 1760s) and today. What today are get-middles used to be canonical passives with a two-participant structure. If we do not consider the historical cultural contexts and findings from historical cultural studies, we run the risk of imposing a hegemonic present-day view on previous stages of the language, falsifying our interpretation of instances of language change.

A Comparative Study on Middle Construction and Encounter (zaoyu) Ba-construction

A Comparative Study on Middle Construction and Encounter (zaoyu) Ba-construction

On Middle Construction in Japanese

This study uncovers Japanese middle constructions based on the approach of “distributed morphology”. The findings reveal that adjunct is obligatory in Japanese middles. Two types of grammatical elements contribute to the adjunct: suffix and adverbs. The suffix yasui corresponds to English “able”. The case of the subject must be nominative, i.e., が. Once verbs are attached by the suffix yasui, their part of speech transits from verb into adjective. The new lexicon predicates an inherent property of the subject. Regarding middles with adjuncts rendered by adverbs, two subtypes are confirmed: the na-adjective formed adverb 簡単に kantan ni, and the i-adjective formed adverb よく yoku. The former is produced by the na-adjective 簡単 with the copular に. The latter is formed by the i-adjective よい with the predicate く ku. The mechanisms of the constructions rendered by the two are similar. Furthermore, unlike English middles, where non change-of-state verbs are ruled out, there is no distinct lexical category of middle verb Japanese. Rather, six groups of verbs are compatible: (a) motion verbs; (b) change-of-state verbs; (c) action verbs; (d) perception verbs; (e) stative verbs; and (f) accomplishment verbs. Crucially, such generosity does not result from the adjuncts. It is the “potential form” of verbs that enables psychological and perception verbs to be licensed in Japanese middles.