Abstract
This paper addresses central issues about the nature of a construction in the Chinese language that is referred to as Verb-Object Compounds (VOCs). It has long been noted that the relationship between the two or more morphemes of VOCs is partly morphological and partly syntactic in the sense that, on the one hand, they do combine to form a ‘word-like unit’, but on the other hand, some degree of separation is possible between the two parts [4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 22, among others]. The VOC has triggered intense interest and rigorous research on the issue of wordhood in Chinese due to its disharmonious behaviour shown in the two separate modules of syntax and morphology. However, these previous discussions mainly focus on the criteria that can identify a word in Chinese. This paper, rather than belabouring the issue of refining these criteria or proposing new ones, centres on the fact that this type of compound exhibits properties in syntax, as well as lexical features in morphology and semantics. The description and analysis of the syntactic and morphological characteristics of VOCs then provide a foundation for a generalized account of the representation of VOCs and Verb-Object (VO) idioms within the grammatical framework of Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG).
S. Yu—Independent Scholar.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Curly brackets are used in the text to enclose the morpheme-for-morpheme translation of verb-object phrasal structures or that of Verb-Object Compounds. Although sometimes the constituents of a VOC themselves do not carry unequivocal meanings as they might be bound morphemes, glosses most appropriate to the context are given for illustrative purposes.
- 2.
Symbols and abbreviations used in this paper: * = Ungrammatical; 1 = First Person; 2 = Second Person; 3 = Third Person; A = adjective; ADJ = adjunct; ADV = adverb; ADVP = adverbial phrase; Ag = Agent; AP = adjectival phrase; ASP = aspect; CL = classifier; D = determiner; DE = genitive marker in Mandarin; DP = determiner phrase; EXP = experiential verbal particle; Exp = experiencer; GE = genitive marker in Cantonese; N = noun; NEG = negative marker; NP = noun phrase; NUM = number; OBJ = object; PERF = perfective verbal particle; PERS = person; PL = plural; PRED = predicate; PRO = pronoun; S = sentence; SG = singular; SUBJ = subject; V = verb; VP = verb phrase.
- 3.
These structures are levels of representation in LFG. Readers unfamiliar with LFG are invited to consult introductory references such as Bresnan 2001 and Falk 2001.
- 4.
Space has limited the explanation of the functional annotations in each PSR. Please refer to Bresnan 2001:44–86 and Falk 2001:68–76 for an introduction to functional annotations in LFG.
- 5.
The Universal Hierarchy identifies the most prominent argument which can be selected as the logical subject, and is: agent > beneficiary > experiencer/goal > instrument > patient/theme > locative.
References
Alsina, A.: Causatives in Bantu and Romance. In: Alsina, A., Bresnan, J., Sells, P. (eds.) Complex Predicates, pp. 203–246. CSLI Publications, Stanford (1997)
Bloomfield, L.: Language. Allen and Unwin, London (1935)
Bodomo, A.: Serial verbs as complex predicates, in Dagaare and Akan. In: Maddieson, I., Hinnebusch, T.J. (eds.) Language History and Linguistics Description in Africa: Trends in African Linguistics, vol. 2, pp. 195–204. Africa World Press, Trenton (1998)
Bodomo, A.: The syntax of nominalized complex verbal predicates in Dagaare. Studia Linguistica 58(1), 1–22 (2004)
Bresnan, J.: The passive in lexical theory. In: Bresnan, J. (ed.) Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, pp. 3–86. MIT Press, Cambridge (1982)
Bresnan, J.: Lexical-Functional Syntax. Blackwell Publishers Inc., Massachusetts (2001)
Bresnan, J., Mchombo, S.A.: The lexical integrity principle: evidence from Bantu. Nat. Lang. Linguist. Theory 13, 181–254 (1995)
Chao, Y.R.: A grammar of spoken Chinese. University of California Press, California (1968)
Che, D.W.: The syntax of particles in Mandarin Chinese. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Hong Kong (2014)
Chi, T.R.: A Lexical Analysis of Verb-Noun Compounds in Mandarin Chinese. The Crane Publishing Co. Ltd., Taipei (1985)
Di Sciullo, A., Williams, E.: On the Definition of Word. MIT Press, Cambridge (1987)
Elenbaas, M.: The synchronic and diachronic syntax of the English verb-particle combination. Ph.D. dissertation, Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen (2007)
Falk, Y.N.: Lexical-Functional Grammar: An Introduction to Parallel Constraint-Based Syntax. CSLI Publications, Stanford (2001)
Her, O.S.: Interaction and Variation in the Chinese VO Construction. The Crane Publishing Co. Ltd., Taipei (1997)
Huang, C.R.: A unification-based analysis of lexical discontinuity. Linguistics 28, 263–307 (1990)
Huang, C.T.J.: Phrase structure, lexical ambiguity, and Chinese compounds. J. Chin. Lang. Teach. Assoc. 19(2), 53–78 (1984)
Li, C.N., Thompson, S.A.: Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. University of California Press, Berkeley (1981)
Mohanan, T.: Multidimensionality of representation: NV complex predicates in Hindi. In: Alsina, A., Bresnan, J., Sells, P. (eds.) Complex Predicates, pp. 431–472. CSLI Publications, Stanford (1997)
Sag, I.A., Gazdar, G., Wasow, T., Weisler, S.: Coordination and how to distinguish categories. Nat. Lang. Linguist. Theory 3, 117–171 (1985)
Simpson, J.: Warlpiri Morpho-Syntax: A Lexicalist Approach. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht (1991)
Tang, T.C.: Bingyu de jufa yu yuyi gongneng [The syntactic and semantic functions of object]. In: Tang, T.C. (ed.) Guoyu yufa yanjiu lunji [Studies on Mandarin Syntax], pp. 81–98. Student Book Co. Ltd., Taipei (1979)
Yu, S.S.: Discontinuous verb-object compounds in Cantonese and Mandarin. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR (2003). http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b2922486
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Prof. John Rennison for native-English speaking proof-editing of our paper in accordance with the requirements of the editors of this volume in which our paper appears. Research, writing, and conference presentation of the paper are funded by the University of Vienna, GADS Research Platform.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bodomo, A., Yu, Ss., Che, D. (2017). Verb-Object Compounds and Idioms in Chinese. In: Mitkov, R. (eds) Computational and Corpus-Based Phraseology. EUROPHRAS 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10596. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69805-2_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69805-2_27
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69804-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69805-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)