A Frame-based Lexical Semantic Categorization of Mandarin Emotion Verbs

• Main Authors: Hong, Shih-Mei, 洪詩楣
• Other Authors: Liu, Mei-Chun
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/53980309134296042660

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 外國語文學系外國文學與語言學碩士班 === 97 === Adopting Frame Semantics proposed by Fillmore and Atkins (1992) and the Framework of Mandarin VerbNet by Liu and Chiang (2008), this study aims to explore Mandarin emotion verbs and classify the verbs into a hierarchical structure. A great number of studies have been investigated the behavior of emotion verbs from different perspectives (e.g. Levin 1993, Tsai et al 1996, Chang et al 2000, Liu 2002, Lai 2004, and Berkeley FrameNet Project ). However, most of the previous studies only looked at a small portion or part of the whole field of emotion verbs. Additionally, previous researches only mentioned Experiencer and Stimulus as the two main or frequently subject roles of emotion verbs. However, Liu (2009) explored the lexicalization patterns of Mandarin verbs of emotion and proposed a third type of subject: Affecter. 1. Experiencer-oriented (Experiencer as subject) a. Transitive:我欣賞/羨慕/討厭他。 wo xinshang/xianmu/taoyan ta ‘I admire/envy/dislike him.’ b. Intransitive: 我很害怕/高興/沮喪。 　 wo hen haipa/gaoxing/jusang ‘I am very frightened/pleased/depressed.’ 2. Stimulus-oriented (Stimulus as subject) a. Intransitive – an attributive property: 這本書很恐怖/枯燥/有趣。 zhe ben shu hen kongbu/kuzao/youqu ‘The book is frightening/boring/ interesting.’ b. Transitive – an affective impact: 這本書很吸引/感動/激勵我。 zhe ben shu hen xiyin/gandong/jili wo ‘The book attracts/touches/encourages me.’ 3. Affecter-oriented (Affecter as subject) 他惹火/激怒了我。 ta rehuo/jinu le wo ‘He infuriates/irritates me.’ This study, adopting Liu’s (2009) three-way distinction proposal, aims to explain and interpret the specific and heterogeneous properties in syntax and semantic of Mandarin emotion verbs and provide a systematical categorization based on the syntax-to-semantics correlations of Mandarin emotion verbs by applying a frame-based and corpus-based analysis. The emotion verbs are categorized into four different layers of frames. They are, from top to down, Archiframe, Primary Frame, Basic Frame, and Micro-frame (Liu and Chiang 2008). Though the frames show diversities, they all share a same conceptual schema postulated with a set of core frame elements. Besides, all children or lower frames inherit the semantic and syntactic properties of the father or upper frame. The hierarchical frame structure of Mandarin emotion verbs in this study includes one Emotion archiframe, four primary frames, nine basic frames, and several micro-frames. The categorization displays some characteristics of Mandarin Emotion verbs, such as perspectives on viewing emotional events, the interrelationship among the frames, and the distinctions of near-synonym sets of verbs. Briefly speaking, this study tries to categorize Mandarin Emotion verbs by the conceptual schema and the syntactic and semantic properties shown through corpus observation and attempts to provide a complete and well-organized explanation and analysis.