“轻动词”之涵义辨析并论“加以”和“进行”的论元结构

On the Meaning of “light verb” and the Argument Structure of Jiayi(加以) and Jinxing(进行) in Mandarin

本文首先对'light verb'和'轻动词'这两个术语的内涵进行了梳理,然后简要讨论了英语的do、日语的suru以及英语的take等具有实际语音形式的'light verbs'在论元结构上的特性。以此为基础,文章考察了'加以'和'进行'两个动词词条,以检验现代汉语里是否存在具有实际语音形式的'轻动词'。我们讨论了上述两个动词词条的论元结构和句法表现,并分析了以这两个动词为主要动词的句子的事件语义。结论是:'加以'是一个带施事(Agent)、对象(Goal)、受事(Theme)的三元动词,而'进行'是一个带受事论元的非宾格(unaccusative)动词,它们词义虚化的感觉是由它们必须带事件名词作宾语并必须与事件名词进行论元整合的事实导致的。现代汉语似乎还没有语法化出do和suru那样真正意义上的'轻动词'。

Kuo and Ting(2007) claim that the Mandarin verb jiayi(加以) is a light verb that takes an incorporated verbal noun as its object just like the Japanese light verb suru(cf. Grimshaw and Mester 1988). They also argue that the verb jinxing(进行) can be used either as a heavy verb or a light verb, depending on whether the theme argument of the verbal noun taken by the verb appears on the clausal level(light verb use) or inside the complex NP projected by the verbal noun(heavy verb use). In this paper, I argue against Kuo and Ting(2007) to show that the two verbs are not light verbs but lexical verbs that have their own argument structure and are capable of assigning theta-roles. I show that the verb jiayi takes three arguments and assigns Agent, Goal and Theme to each of them. This explains facts about how the three arguments of the verb are realized in the syntax. I provide evidence to show that jinxing is an unaccusative verb which takes a verbal noun as its theme argument. I analyze the event semantics of sentences with these two verbs as the main verb to show that the two verbs both denote a complex event, which further suggests the two verbs are not light verbs. The discussion of this paper has implications for theoretical issues such as argument structure and theta-marking and applied issues in NLP such as semantic role labeling.