Studies in Linguistics and Language Education

Event Structure Analysis Of Chinese And English Transitivized Constructions

Auteurs : Gao Xiuxue .

Résumé

The transitivized construction of unergative manner-of-motion verbs is a typical example of a mismatch between form and function and transitivization is linguistically universal. This study, within the framework of event structure theory, explores the generation mechanism of unergative verbs with adjunct arguments. It proposes that there is a bidirectional interaction between semantics and syntax. Transitivization undergoes two processes: First, the event structure, influences the syntactic structure. Based on event integration and linguistic economy, the complex event structure selectively maps onto the syntactic structure, forming the transitivized construction in which the path preposition or the preposition connecting co-event is omitted. Second, the syntactic structure influences the expression of the event structure. Based on the analogy of the typical transitive construction, the motion event transforms from a spatial motion event into an action event. Transitivization is the process of event reconstruction. The differences between English and Chinese transitivization are of typological significance. Different motion manner prominence of motion verbs and cognitive models make Chinese transitivization more flexible and productive.

Mots clés

Transitivization; Event Structure; Event Integration; Event Reconstruction