英汉“切断”事件动词的语义特征与句法行为对比研究

＂切断＂事件指使构成物体的完整材料被分离或破坏且不可还原的日常事件。作为人类社会重要而普遍的日常活动,＂切断＂事件对人类语言与认知具有重要的影响。依据词典释义和语料库语料对比分析英汉＂切断＂事件动词的语义特征、词化模式、论元转换和体特征之异同。结果显示两种语言的＂切断＂事件动词具有共享的范畴化特征和主要义素,但在次范畴化、语义场结构和词化模式方面存在差异。同时,两种语言间这些动词在论元转换和体特征方面的相似性和差异表明此类动词的句法行为对其语义具有敏感性,丰富了跨语言的动词语义与其句法行为关系方面的研究,并为动词语义决定其句法行为的理论提供了进一步的支持。

A Contrastive Study on the Semantic Features and Syntactic Behaviors of English and Chinese Verbs of "Cutting and Breaking" Events

Cutting and breaking events refer to everyday events involving a separation or destruction in the material integrity of an object which is irreversible.As an important and common daily activity in human society,cutting and breaking event affects human language and cognition.Drawing on dictionary definitions and corpus data,this article contrasts the semantic features,lexicalization patterns,argument alterations and aspect characteristics of cutting and breaking verbs in English and Chinese.The results indicate that cutting and breaking verbs in the two languages share similar categorization and major semantic components,but differ in sub-categorization,the structure of semantic field and lexicalization patterns.Meanwhile,the similarities and differences in argument alterations and aspect of these verbs between the two languages suggest that these verbs’ syntactic behaviors are sensitive to their meanings.This study enriches relevant cross-linguistic research on the relationship between verb meaning and verb behavior as well as further supports the theory that a verb’ s meaning determines its syntactic behavior.