Multiple Chinese Verbs Equivalent to the English Verb “Know”

Author(s):  
Kiyohide Arakawa ◽  
Masaharu Mizumoto

This chapter examines the basic grammatical and semantic features of knowledge verbs in Chinese—renshi, zhidao, and liaojie—and compares them with their counterparts in English and Japanese. The comparison is mainly based on lexical aspects like being stative or nonstative, whether they express in their basic forms a state, or an event, and so on. The authors then examine whether these verbs allow uses in orders, combine with some auxiliary verbs like the counterparts of “decide to,” “want to,” and the like (which suggest the possibility or the degree of voluntary control). Finally, they propose a possible “order of activity implication” among zhidao, “know,” and two Japanese knowledge verbs.

2020 ◽  
Vol XVI (1) ◽  
pp. 523-544
Author(s):  
A. Kazenkova ◽  

The article is devoted to the semantic analysis of verbs of falling in Kazakh language. In particular, the composition of a group of verbs is revealed, their semantic features were described, the usage as part of serial constructions and the main directions of metaphor construction. The article has used the method of analysis, which was created by the Moscow Lexical Typology Group. Data collection was performed through the dictionaries, corpus data, speech observation, a survey of Kazakh speakers, etc. The main verb of falling in Kazakh is the verb құлау. It means falling from above, losing a vertical orientation, crashing down. In contrast to this, the separation of one object from another or the part of a whole is expressed by the verb түсу ‘to descend / fall’, as well as ұшу ‘to fl y’, шығу ‘to go out’. Moreover, the Kazakh language has a number of verbs,which are detailing the process of falling by its nature, the type of subject of falling, etc. The process of falling is detailed by a number of verbs: аударылу ‘to turn over’; ауу ‘to overturn / to tumble/ to turn over / hang on one side’; жығылу ‘to be dumped/ to be dropped’; сүріну ‘to stumble’; төмендеу ‘to lower/ to fall’ etc.In addition, verbs of falling are often found by the type of subject of falling. Viaverbs can be detected various types of precipitation, falling drops, small objects, liquid and loose substances, etc. Kazakh verbs of falling are used as part of serial constructions: in combination with auxiliary verbs қалу ‘to stay’ and кету ‘to go away’, they express the meaning of suddenness, brevity or completeness of action. The verb of falling түсу ‘to go down/ to get down/ to fall’ can also stand out as an auxiliary verb. Verbs of falling develop metaphorical meanings of decrease, the loss of functionality by objects and disability by a person, a sudden and uncontrolled process, etc. At the same time, this or that type of metaphor, as a rule, is expressed by any verb of falling.


Author(s):  
Nataliia Holovatska

The article focuses on the study of the lexical-semantic subsystem of sensory verbs in the Modern English verb system. The objectives of the study are to analyse sensory verbs’ semantic features, establish macro- and micro integral connections between them, and to determine their groups and synonymic sets by differential trait and denotative sema. Definitional, componential, comparative, proportional and quantitative analysis, English explanatory dictionaries and thesauri were used in the study. Sensory verbs of five lexical-semantic fields have approximately the same proportion of lexemes that form the core, main part and periphery of each corresponding lexical-semantic field, with a slightly larger number of verbs in the main part. Old English sensory verbs make up a third of the modern perception process subsystem, almost a half of the borrowed lexemes from French and Latin, a tenth of sensory verbs borrowed from the West Germanic group and a small percentage is formed by borrowings from other languages, unknown or imitative origin. The study analysed the share of sensory verbs according to the periods of English language development. Sensory verbs of the Middle English and New English periods make up more than a half of the sensory vocabulary of the modern perception process subsystem. It is established that sensory verbs are combined into groups and synonymic sets by seven differential traits. The results of the study of connections between sensory verbs show that they are not isolated in their lexical-semantic fields and in general in the sensory subsystem of the sensory perception process, i.e. they migrate between sensory lexical-semantic fields. All the lexemes of the sensory subsystem are hierarchical, belong to the hierarchy of lexical-semantic formations and implicitly have all the features of the higher levels of the hierarchy. Thus, lexical-semantic fields of sensory verbs are open systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 96-111
Author(s):  
Franziska Schaller ◽  
Brittany Lee ◽  
Zed Sevcikova Sehyr ◽  
Lucinda O’Grady Farnady ◽  
Karen Emmorey

Abstract Meir’s (2010) Double Mapping Constraint (DMC) states the use of iconic signs in metaphors is restricted to signs that preserve the structural correspondence between the articulators and the concrete source domain and between the concrete and metaphorical domains. We investigated ASL signers’ comprehension of English metaphors whose translations complied with the DMC (Communication collapsed during the meeting) or violated the DMC (The acid ate the metal). Metaphors were preceded by the ASL translation of the English verb, an unrelated sign, or a still video. Participants made sensibility judgments. Response times (RTs) were faster for DMC-Compliant sentences with verb primes compared to unrelated primes or the still baseline. RTs for DMC-Violation sentences were longer when preceded by verb primes. We propose the structured iconicity of the ASL verbs primed the semantic features involved in the iconic mapping and these primed semantic features facilitated comprehension of DMC-Compliant metaphors and slowed comprehension of DMC-Violation metaphors.


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