| Summary: | 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 === 99 === This study attempts to provide a frame-based analysis of the lexical distinctions encoded in Mandarin social interaction verbs as evidenced in their syntax-to-semantics correlations. Adopting Frame Semantics (Fillmore & Atkins 1992), the hierarchical frame structures (Liu & Chiang 2008) and Force Dynamics (Talmy 2000), this study aims to investigate: 1) the form-meaning correlations lexicalized in Mandarin social interaction verbs, 2) the distinctions of Mandarin social interaction verbs, and 3) the conceptual schemas of reciprocity in terms of force relations.
Mandarin social interaction verbs belong to the category of lexical reciprocals, denoting mutual configurations by themselves without necessary grammatical marking (cf. Haspelmath 2007). Semantically, social interaction verbs relate to group activities that inherently involve two or more participants within social settings (cf. Levin 1993). Syntactically, the participants are realized as a single argument in subject position, as shown below:
(1) 我{和/跟/與}他 合作/競爭/交流/互動/分開/對抗/配合/結合。
wo han/gen/yu ta hezuo/jingzheng/jiaoliu/hudong/fenkai/duikang/peihe/jiehe
‘I collaborate/compete/interchange/interact/separate/oppose/coordinate/
combine (with) him.’
In addition, in view of the transitivity between participants, these verbs can be further divided into two subtypes: transitive usage is ungrammatical in Type 1, as in (2a), whereas transitive usage is grammatical in Type 2, as in (3a). The status of participants is equal in Type 1, as (2b) equals to (2c). On the contrary, the status of participants is unequal in Type 2, as (3a) doesn’t equal to (3b), and (3c) does not equal to (3d). However, (3a) equals to (3c), and (3b) equals to (3d).
(2) a. *我 合作/競爭/交流/互動/分開 他。
wo hezuo/jingzheng/jiaoliu/hudong/fenkai ta
‘*I collaborate/compete/interchange/interact/separate him.’
b. 我{和/跟/與}他 合作/競爭/交流/互動/分開。
wo han/gen/yu ta hezuo/jingzheng/jiaoliu/hudong/fenkai
‘I collaborate/compete/interchange/interact/separate with him.’
c. 他{和/跟/與}我 合作/競爭/交流/互動/分開。
ta han/gen/yu wo hezuo/jingzheng/jiaoliu/hudong/fenkai
‘He collaborate/compete/interchange/interact/separate with me.’
(3) a. 我 對抗/配合/結合 他。
wo duikang/peihe/jiehe ta
‘I oppose/coordinate/combine (with) him.’
b. 他 對抗/配合/結合 我。
ta duikang/peihe/jiehe wo
‘He oppose/coordinate/combine (with) me.’
c. 我{和/跟/與}他 對抗/配合/結合。
wo han/gen/yu ta duikang/peihe/jiehe
‘I oppose/coordinate/combine (with) him.’
d. 他{和/跟/與}我 對抗/配合/結合。
ta han/gen/yu wo duikang/peihe/jiehe
‘He oppose/coordinate/combine (with) me.’
What’s more, when the participants are realized as a collective noun in subject position, the reciprocity denoted by verbs in Type 1 are more acceptable than those in Type 2, as shown in (4). To encode reciprocity thoroughly, those verbs in Type 2 need to collocate with 互相 huxiang ‘each other’, as shown in (5).
(4) 我們 合作/競爭/交流/互動/分開/?對抗/?配合/?結合。
women hezuo/jingzheng/jiaoliu/hudong/fenkai/duikang/peihe/jiehe
‘we collaborate/compete/interchange/interact/separate/?oppose/?coordinate/
?combine.’
(5) 我們互相 對抗/配合/結合。
women huxiang duikang/peihe/jiehe
‘we oppose/coordinate/combine with each other.’
By mapping syntactic realizations to semantic properties, Mandarin social interaction verbs can be divided into two different but related subframes based on their transitivity between participants: 1) Bilateral frame, and 2) multiple inheritances from both Bilateral and Unilateral frame. On one hand, lemmas of Bilateral frame, such as 合作/競爭/交流/互動/分開, can be used intransitively only. The status of participants is equal. The reciprocity is fully lexicalized in the verbs. On the other hand, cross-frame lemmas of Bilateral and Unilateral frame, such as 對抗/配合/結合 can be used both intransitively and transitively. The status of participants is unequal. The verbs sometimes cannot fully denote reciprocity in lexical way, but in both lexical and syntactic ways. A reciprocity scale thus arose due to the grammatical behavior of these verbs.
In sum, this study is significant in exploring the reciprocity encoded by Mandarin social interaction verbs from corpus observation, and ultimately probes into a broader generalization of reciprocity in terms of force relations.
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