Cover not available

In:Analysing Chinese Language and Discourse across Layers and Genres
Edited by Wei Wang
[Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse 13] 2020
► pp. 73–100

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 5
The acceptability of 把 ba+subject-oriented resultatives in Mandarin Chinese

 | Minzu University of China
Published online: 28 August 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.13.05yu
Abstract
The combination of 把 ba and subject-oriented resultative constructions in Mandarin Chinese, which is not always well accepted by native speakers, has so far received little scholarly attention. To test the acceptability of 把 ba + subject-oriented resultatives in Chinese, based on examples in the corpora, a questionnaire survey among 71 Chinese college students was carried out with the technique of magnitude estimation, which could detect small but significant differences in acceptability. The results suggest that the acceptability of 把 ba + subject-oriented resultatives depends on the degree of transitivity of the sentence. In general, patterns with the interpretation of the subject making efforts to achieve something thoroughly are acceptable. The cognitive explanation I propose is that a high degree of transitivity expressed by the sentence is compatible with the function of 把 ba as a marker of high transitivity.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
    • The 把 ba-construction
      • Disposal
      • Causativity
      • High transitivity
    • 把 ba+subject-oriented resultative
  • Methodology
    • Corpus
    • Questionnaire survey
      • Magnitude estimation
      • Questionnaire survey about the acceptability of 把 ba + subject-oriented resultatives in Chinese
  • Questionnaire survey: Results and discussion
    • Sentences with and without 把 ba
      • Results 1
      • Discussion 1
    • 把 ba + sentences with and without 终于 zhong-yu ‘finally’
      • Results 2
      • Discussion 2
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (31)
References
Bard, Ellen G., Dan Robertson and Antonella Sorace. 1996. “Magnitude estimation of linguistic acceptability.” Language 72(1): 32–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chao, Yuanren. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cowart, Wayne. 1997. Experimental Syntax: Applying Objective Methods to Sentence Judgments. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert M. 1979. “Ergativity.” Language 55 (1): 59–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Featherston, Sam. 2005. “Magnitude estimation and what it can do for your syntax: Some wh-constraints in German.” Lingua 115 (11): 1525–1550. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guo, Rui. 1999. “Baziju de peijia jiegou [The valence structure of the Ba construction].” Paper presented at Dierjie quanguo xiandai hanyu peijia yufa yantaohui [the Second Seminar of Valance Grammar in Contemporary Chinese, Fudan University, 18–19 December.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar (second edition) London: Edward Amold Pty Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Han, Jing. 2013. Constructional Change and Emergence in Chinese Expressions involving BA. Edinburgh: The University of Edinburgh dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1994. “Passive participles across languages. Voice: Form and function” in Typological Studies in Language (27), ed. by Barbara Fox & Paul Hopper, 151–177. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hollmann, Willem B. 2013. Ditransitive Constructions in Lancashire Dialect. Paper presented at the LAGB Annual Meeting. SOAS, 28–31 August.
Hopper, Paul J. and Sandra A. Thompson. 1980. “Transitivity in grammar and discourse.” Language 56 (2). 251–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jing-Schmidt, Zhuo. 2005. Dramatized Discourse: The Mandarin Chinese ba-Construction. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1991. Concept, Image, and Symbol: The Cognitive Basis of Grammar. Berlin: Moutun de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Yingche. 1974. “What does disposal mean? Features of the verb and noun in Chinese.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 2 (2): 200–218.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyons, John. 1977. Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McEnery, Anthony, and Zhonghua Xiao. 2004. “The Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese: A Corpus for Monolingual and Contrastive Language Study.” Religion (17): 3–4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Næss, Åshild. 2007. Prototypical Transitivity. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Beth Levin. 2001. “An Event Structure Account of English Resultatives.” Language 77 (4): 766–797. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shen, Jiaxuan. 2002. “Ruhe chuzhi ‘chuzhishi’? – lun baziju de zhuguanxing [How to dispose the disposal construction? – on the subjectivity of Ba construction].” Studies of the Chinese Language 290 (5): 387–399.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shi, Chunhong. 2008. Hanyu dongjieshi de jufa yuyi yanjiu [The syntax and semantics of Chinese verb-resultative constructions]. Peking: Peking University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Song, Yuzhu. 1981. “Guanyu baziju de liangge wenti [Two questions of the Ba construction].” Linguistic Researches 2: 39–43.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sun, Chaofen. 1995. “Transitivity, the ba construction and its history.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 23 (1): 159–195.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. 1976. “Semantic causative types.” In The Grammar of Causative Constructions ed. by Masayoshi Shibatani, Syntax and Semantics (6), 43–116. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Hongqi. 2003. “Baziju de yiyi jiujing shi shenm? [What is the semantics of the Ba construction?].” Linguistic Research 2: 35–40.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Li. 1947. Zhongguo xiandai yufa [Modern Chinese Grammar]. Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju [Zhonghua Book Company].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xiong, Zhongru. 2004. Xiandai hanyu zhong de zhishi jushi [The Causative Sentences in Contemporary Chinese]. Hefei: Anhui University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ye, Kuang and Haihua, Pan. 2018. “The most recent research on antipassive and the nature of the Ba construction in Chinese.” Studies in Language and Linguistics 38(1): 1–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ye, Xiangyang. 2004. “Baziju de zhishixing jieshi [Causative interpretation of the Ba-sentence.” Chinese Teaching in the World 68 (2): 25–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yu, Shuo. 2018. Resultative Constructions in Mandarin Chinese from the Perspective of Construction Grammar: A cognitive-typological view. Lancaster: Lancaster University Dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhan, Weidong, Ma Teng, Tian Jun and Sunaoka Kazuko. 2015. “Hanyu shubu jiegou shujuku de goujian jiqi keshihua yanjiu [Development of an online database for Chinese resultative verb compounds and its application based on data visualization technology].” Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching (6) 1: 1–15.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhao, Qi. 2009. Argument Realizations of English and Chinese Resultative Constructions. Shanghai: Fudan University dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue