Disease-denoting Constructions in Taiwanese Southern-Min:Interaction between Construction and Semantics

• Main Authors: You, Hsiaoling, 游小玲
• Other Authors: Lien, Chinfa
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/75478949411248463228

碩士 === 國立新竹教育大學 === 臺灣語言與語文教育研究所 === 94 === No studies have ever tried to demonstrate the various types of disease-denoting constructions (henceforth DC). This thesis provides a comprehensive description and an adequate account for the various types of DC in Taiwanese Southern-Min (henceforth TSM) within a construction-based framework. A finding that emerges in this study is that qualia structures of disease-denoting theme arguments not only play a major role in determining the profiling or shadowing of locative arguments syntactically, but also constrain how composition of other constituents (predicate or complement) operate. A central thesis of this work is that proto-disease-denoting argument structure of TSM has an intimate link with types of construction – form-meaning correspondences that exist independently of particular verbs. I explore the idea that the argument structure construction of proto-disease-denoting sentence, [NP Patient + NP Locative + V + NP/Adj. Theme], is a special subclass of constructions, which means [Xtheme exist or (dis)appear in/on patient’s (whole or part of) body]. I argue that existential, (dis-)appearance, possessive, disease-denoting, and weather argument structure constructions belong to the same category in terms of their similarities and difference in semantic and syntactic characteristics. Existential and (dis-)appearance constructions are prototypes. Possessive, DC, and weather constructions differ from the prototypes in one or more features. They are systematically related to each other in form and functions. Thus there is a relation among them which can be best captured as a kind of family resemblance. In particular, they may represent metaphorical extensions (as in possessive construction and DC) or a subpart of the prototypes (as in weather construction). That is, the existential / (dis)appearance form [NP Locative + V + NP Theme] is associated with a set of systematically related senses. Possessive, DC, and weather constructions inherit the basic form and meaning from existential or (dis-)appearance construction grounded on the principle of cost-free redundancy. It can be viewed as a case of radial structure. Generalizations over constructions and systematical redundancy within TSM are thus captured via inheritance network within construction-based framework. As for the relations between verb semantics and DC semantics, not all types of verbs can occur in DC. Only the verbs that are compatible with the basic meanings of DC can occur in the construction. Let Ev be the event type designated by the verb, and Ec the event type designated by the construction (Goldberg 1995). In transitive DC, Ev may designate a precondition or the manner of Ec, and Ev may be a subpart of Ec. <Ev-Ec>=Precondition is the majority since precondition (or cause) denotes the most important semantic information in causally-linked disease event. In the case of intransitive DC, disease-denoting themes may well be the shadow arguments and semantically incorporate into verbal or adjectival predicates. Besides, they may be the true arguments and syntactically realized in nominal predicates. Therefore a large majority of Ev designates the manner or the means of identifying Ec in intransitive DC. As to the predicates in DC, they are classified into three classes: state, activity, and achievement within Vendler’s (1967) time schemata. Furthermore, predicate decomposition is adopted to see if predicates in the same aspectual class share syntactically salient properties, including those relevant for determining argument realization. I conclude that it is not possible to handle argument realization only in terms of lexical aspect (Aktionsart). Predicates with similar aspectual characterizations do not share the same range of argument realization. I further show that sentience, which is construed to be one of the most important properties in disease event and lacks a natural place in the aspectual approach, is involved in argument realization of DC. In this monograph, it is shown that constructions are essential to a description of the domain of disease-denoting sentences and DC is proved to be inherited from ordinary argument structure constructions in TSM. It is, therefore, justifiable to conclude that constructions are crucial to the description of language.