The English Middle Construction (EMC), as a piculiar syntactic structure, shares its semantic features, but diversifies in its syntactic configuration compared with other languages. This paper tries to have a contrast...The English Middle Construction (EMC), as a piculiar syntactic structure, shares its semantic features, but diversifies in its syntactic configuration compared with other languages. This paper tries to have a contrast study of the Middle Construcitons between English and Chinese and find the two languages share the same semantic features that the incompatibility between the semantic quantitatives (SQs) of the Adverb (Adjunct in the syntactic term) and the SQs of the Verb denoted by the predicate of MC leads to the deactivization of the predicate by means of the Adjunct, functioning as a quantitative device, assign delimitation to the predicate, hence ensures the grammaticality of the construction. But syntatically, we agree that the NP Movement Approach accounts for the formation of EMC, while we argue in Chinese it is the verb raising that results in the MC. This paper first represents the structural representation of the English Middle Construction; then the structural analysis is elaborated in comparison with that in Chinese, based on the previous studies; and finally the motivations of the Ecs in the perspective of syntactic and semantic functions are explored and hence a new hypothesis is raised to probe the similar construction in Chinese.展开更多
We focused in this study on two verbs of motion ba （come） and hevi （bring） used in contemporary Hebrew pointing to a number of semantic shifts occurring in each of them and to categorical shifts that occurred in t...We focused in this study on two verbs of motion ba （come） and hevi （bring） used in contemporary Hebrew pointing to a number of semantic shifts occurring in each of them and to categorical shifts that occurred in the verb ha. We conducted a semantic and syntactic analysis of these shifts in which we observed： a change in the syntactic valuation of ba and hevi, the semantic characteristic of the nominal collocations which form their syntactic setting, and the semantic connection between their original and new meanings. The article starts out with a presentation of the original meanings of the two verbs as belonging to the family of concrete verbs of motion. It then presents the semantic shifts each undergoing from designating motion to designating giving, existing, and modality （capability, intent and aspect） and concludes with the categorical shift of the verb ba to impersonal （ロ＂λ∏） and to discourse marker. It is noteworthy that in each of the shifts observed we noticed relation between the meaning stemming from the shift and the original meaning of ba and hevi as verbs of motion. We were able to prove that the original meaning is still echoed both in the semantic and category categorical shifts.展开更多
文摘The English Middle Construction (EMC), as a piculiar syntactic structure, shares its semantic features, but diversifies in its syntactic configuration compared with other languages. This paper tries to have a contrast study of the Middle Construcitons between English and Chinese and find the two languages share the same semantic features that the incompatibility between the semantic quantitatives (SQs) of the Adverb (Adjunct in the syntactic term) and the SQs of the Verb denoted by the predicate of MC leads to the deactivization of the predicate by means of the Adjunct, functioning as a quantitative device, assign delimitation to the predicate, hence ensures the grammaticality of the construction. But syntatically, we agree that the NP Movement Approach accounts for the formation of EMC, while we argue in Chinese it is the verb raising that results in the MC. This paper first represents the structural representation of the English Middle Construction; then the structural analysis is elaborated in comparison with that in Chinese, based on the previous studies; and finally the motivations of the Ecs in the perspective of syntactic and semantic functions are explored and hence a new hypothesis is raised to probe the similar construction in Chinese.
文摘We focused in this study on two verbs of motion ba （come） and hevi （bring） used in contemporary Hebrew pointing to a number of semantic shifts occurring in each of them and to categorical shifts that occurred in the verb ha. We conducted a semantic and syntactic analysis of these shifts in which we observed： a change in the syntactic valuation of ba and hevi, the semantic characteristic of the nominal collocations which form their syntactic setting, and the semantic connection between their original and new meanings. The article starts out with a presentation of the original meanings of the two verbs as belonging to the family of concrete verbs of motion. It then presents the semantic shifts each undergoing from designating motion to designating giving, existing, and modality （capability, intent and aspect） and concludes with the categorical shift of the verb ba to impersonal （ロ＂λ∏） and to discourse marker. It is noteworthy that in each of the shifts observed we noticed relation between the meaning stemming from the shift and the original meaning of ba and hevi as verbs of motion. We were able to prove that the original meaning is still echoed both in the semantic and category categorical shifts.
