Delimiting durative events with manner

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chu-Ren Huang ◽  
Siaw-Fong Chung
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Text ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Original Activity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Limited Availability ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Temporal Concepts ◽  
Generative Lexicon ◽  
Activity Verb

Abstract Durative events by default are atelic. However, temporal targets are typically required for durative verbs with a rushing manner, such as ‘We are catching the 3:30 flight’ and ‘The farmer rushed to harvest before the storm’. Why and how does manner introduce delimiting temporal concepts to durative verbs? This puzzle is addressed by our current study of two near-synonymous Mandarin durative verbs describing events carried out in a rushing manner: 赶 gǎn and 抢 qiǎng. Our event-base account will examine both their compositional meanings and their constructional patterns. We will show that 赶 gǎn and 抢 qiǎng not only coerce eventive readings from their nominal objects, but also require certain delineating temporal targets. The verb 赶 gǎn requires an understood deadline, while the verb 抢 qiǎng requires the presupposition of the limited availability of the object. As neither temporal targets mark the time of the actual activities, these are exceptional cases of aktionsart. We will show that the different ways to delineate event meanings of the constructions [gǎn/qiǎng+ noun] can be predicted from the lexical meaning of the two verbs and can in turn predict the event types represented by the object with the MARVS theory. Based on this lexical semantic representation, we further show that the Generative Lexicon theory predicts the coercions of the rushing meaning from the original activity verb senses, and that the Construction Grammar theory accounts for their sharing of the same syntactic configuration.

The Emptiness of the Lexicon: Reflections on James Pustejovsky's The Generative Lexicon

1998 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry A. Fodor ◽  
Ernie Lepore
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Generative Lexicon

We consider Pustejovsky's account of the semantic lexicon. We discuss and reject his argument that the complexity of lexical entries is required to account for lexical generativity. Finally, we defend a sort of lexical atomism: though, strictly speaking, we concede that lexical entries are typically complex, still we claim that their complexity does not jeopardize either the thesis that lexical meaning is atomistic or the identification of lexical meaning with denotation.

The verbs ‘rain’ and ‘snow’ in Gallo-Romance, and other morphological mismatches in diachrony

2020 ◽  
pp. 385-402
Author(s):  
Martin Maiden
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Similarity ◽  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Entire Word

The historical morphology of the verb ‘snow’ in Francoprovençal presents a conundrum, in that it is clearly analogically influenced by the verb ‘rain’, for obvious reasons of lexical semantic similarity, but the locus of that influence is not the ‘root’ (the ostensible bearer of lexical meaning) but desinential inflexion-class members, which are in principle independent of any lexical meaning. Similar morphological changes are also identified for other Gallo-Romance verbs. It seems, in effect, that speakers can identify exponents of the lexical meaning of word-forms in linear sequences larger than the apparent ‘morphemic’ composition of those word-forms, even when such a composition may seem prima facie transparent and obvious. It is argued that these facts are inherently incompatible with ‘constructivist’, morpheme-based, models of morphology, and strongly compatible with what have been called ‘abstractivist’ (‘word-and-paradigm’) approaches, which generally take entire word-forms as the primary units of morphological analysis.

A Chinese ancient book digital humanities research platform to support digital humanities research

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 314-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Ming Chen ◽  
Chung Chang
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Word Segmentation ◽  
Digital Archives ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Text Annotation ◽  
Research Platform ◽  
Ancient Texts

PurposeWith the rapid development of digital humanities, some digital humanities platforms have been successfully developed to support digital humanities research for humanists. However, most of them have still not provided a friendly digital reading environment and practicable social network analysis tool to support humanists on interpreting texts and exploring characters’ social network relationships. Moreover, the advancement of digitization technologies for the retrieval and use of Chinese ancient books is arising an unprecedented challenge and opportunity. For these reasons, this paper aims to present a Chinese ancient books digital humanities research platform (CABDHRP) to support historical China studies. In addition to providing digital archives, digital reading, basic search and advanced search functions for Chinese ancient books, this platform still provides two novel functions that can more effectively support digital humanities research, including an automatic text annotation system (ATAS) for interpreting texts and a character social network relationship map tool (CSNRMT) for exploring characters’ social network relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted DSpace, an open-source institutional repository system, to serve as a digital archives system for archiving scanned images, metadata, and full texts to develop the CABDHRP for supporting digital humanities (DH) research. Moreover, the ATAS developed in the CABDHRP used the Node.js framework to implement the system’s front- and back-end services, as well as application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by different databases, such as China Biographical Database (CBDB) and TGAZ, used to retrieve the useful linked data (LD) sources for interpreting ancient texts. Also, Neo4j which is an open-source graph database management system was used to implement the CSNRMT of the CABDHRP. Finally, JavaScript and jQuery were applied to develop a monitoring program embedded in the CABDHRP to record the use processes from humanists based on xAPI (experience API). To understand the research participants’ perception when interpreting the historical texts and characters’ social network relationships with the support of ATAS and CSNRMT, semi-structured interviews with 21 research participants were conducted.FindingsAn ATAS embedded in the reading interface of CABDHRP can collect resources from different databases through LD for automatically annotating ancient texts to support digital humanities research. It allows the humanists to refer to resources from diverse databases when interpreting ancient texts, as well as provides a friendly text annotation reader for humanists to interpret ancient text through reading. Additionally, the CSNRMT provided by the CABDHRP can semi-automatically identify characters’ names based on Chinese word segmentation technology and humanists’ support to confirm and analyze characters’ social network relationships from Chinese ancient books based on visualizing characters’ social networks as a knowledge graph. The CABDHRP not only can stimulate humanists to explore new viewpoints in a humanistic research, but also can promote the public to emerge the learning interest and awareness of Chinese ancient books.Originality/valueThis study proposed a novel CABDHRP that provides the advanced features, including the automatic word segmentation of Chinese text, automatic Chinese text annotation, semi-automatic character social network analysis and user behavior analysis, that are different from other existed digital humanities platforms. Currently, there is no this kind of digital humanities platform developed for humanists to support digital humanities research.

Usage, media, and grammaticalization

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-83
Author(s):  
Liang Tao
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rhetorical Question ◽  
Beijing Mandarin ◽  
Grammatical Change ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This report presents a case study on a current grammatical change in a rhetorical question 不是…吗 (isn’t it the case…?) and its spreading from spoken Beijing Mandarin to Mandarin Chinese in general. The study addresses three interrelated issues that concern the development and spreading of this new pattern: (1) usage-based language variation and change in spoken Beijing Mandarin; (2) Socio-cultural factors that may have promoted the adaptation of the new pattern in Mandarin Chinese; and (3) the impact of media, which may enhance the rapid spreading of the pattern in China. The report offers another instance of usage as the main driving force leading to language variation and grammaticalization.

Clitic pronouns in Archaic Chinese

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Redouane Djamouri ◽  
Waltraud Paul
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Text ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Archaic Chinese ◽  
History Of ◽  
Adjacent Position ◽  
Null Pronoun

Abstract This article provides evidence for the so far neglected existence of two clitic pronouns, yǐ 以 and yǔ 與, in Archaic Chinese (10th c. – 3th c. bc) in immediately verb-adjacent position: ‘yǐ/yǔ-V’. While yǔ only encodes the comitative/associative, yǐ encodes all kinds of (argument and adjunct) roles, depending on the semantics of the verb involved. We argue that the clitic pronouns yǐ and yǔ can neither be analysed as stranded prepositions left behind after extraction of their complement (as, e.g., in English) nor as orphan prepositions, i.e., PPs with an in situ null pronoun as complement (as, e.g., in French). This ties in with the general ban against prepositions lacking an overt complement, observed throughout the history of Chinese.

The translator as cartographer

Target ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Leonora Min Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Text ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Cognitive Maps ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Spatial Layout ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World

Abstract The concept of a cognitive map has been borrowed from psychology by literary scholars to denote the mental representation of the spatial layout of (a) storyworld(s). The classic Chinese novel 紅樓夢 Hongloumeng ‘The Story of the Stone’ (also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber) is particularly well-known for its topographic representation of a storyworld of self-contained totality and detailed veracity. Using David Hawkes’s English translation of the novel and various materials from his notebooks, this article demonstrates the translator’s (mental) cartographic effort to conjure up ‘maps in mind’ in response to the textual spatial cues. I argue that Hawkes’s cognitive maps offer explanations to some translational performances that have been too readily glossed over as insignificant. The article also aims to chart a new path forward for systematic investigation into the significance of the translator’s imaginative participation in ‘the world inside the text’, for the sake of an enriched understanding of translation, both as a product and a process.

A Property Level Analysis of Lexical Semantic Representation in Alzheimer′s Disease

1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Smith ◽  
M. Faust ◽  
M. Beeman ◽  
L. Kennedy ◽  
D. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Level Analysis

Lexical semantic constraints on noun roots and noun borrowability

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 683-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kind ◽  
Semantic Representation ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
Artifact Type

While nouns are thought to be more easily borrowed than verbs, this investigation demonstrates that there may be limitations on noun borrowing into certain languages. The case of Zuni is examined, in which conditions of contact similar to that of neighboring languages nevertheless result in a different treatment of the noun lexicon. The possibility of borrowing natural kind nouns into Zuni exists alongside a tendency against borrowing nouns of the artifact type. It is argued that the source of this tendency against artifact noun borrowing in Zuni is the grammatical complexity of the lexical semantic representation for these nouns: grammatical complexity in Zuni noun roots appears to be dispreferred. These findings belie the claim of Thomason and Kaufman (1988) that “any linguistic feature can be transferred to any other language” given an appropriate degree of contact.

Joint patronage in translating Chinese literature into English

Babel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 765-779
Author(s):  
Liping Bai
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Text ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Western World ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Book Series ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
Successful Launch ◽  
Normal University ◽  
The University

Abstract There has been a change in the form of patronage in translating Chinese culture/literature into English since the 1990s, that is, from sole patronage to joint patronage. This article discusses joint patronage in translating Chinese literature from Chinese into English through the case of the Chinese Literature Overseas Dissemination Project (中國文學海外傳播工程), which is under the joint patronage of Beijing Normal University, the Confucius Institute at University of Oklahoma, and the University of Oklahoma Press. The goals of this project have been well achieved with the successful launch of the journal Chinese Literature Today (CLT) and the publication of the CLT book series. The success of this project demonstrates that joint patronage is an ideal form of translating Chinese literature into English, and the Chinese Literature Overseas Dissemination Project has set a good example for the introduction of Chinese literature to the Western world.

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