Concentric - Volume 45, Issue 2, 2019

This paper focuses on both single and compound locative alternation verbs in Mandarin Chinese. First, three particular properties of locative alternation verbs are introduced and compared cross-linguistically with examples from Japanese and English. Next, three properties are explored further and possible explanations are provided for the observed similarities and differences between the languages. Finally, the syntactic patterns of locative alternation verbs in Mandarin Chinese are investigated in the Sinica Corpus. The results show that the “oblique argument-verb-accusative argument” sentence pattern has the highest percentage of appearance. This finding echoes Lin’s (2008) claim that Chinese is not only a “topic prominent” language, but also a “locative prominent” language.

This paper discusses the unmarked obligatory fronting of the undergoer argument in the Excessive serial verb construction (hereafter SVC) in Mandarin Chinese. Acknowledging the existing description of the semantic-syntactic characteristics of the Excessive SVC (see for example, Li 1994, Shen & Peng 2010, Zhang 2014, Fan 2017), we provide an explicit monoclausal account for the phenomenon of obligatory fronting of the undergoer argument, arguing that it directly correlates with the monoclausal structure. By doing so, we contrast our analysis with the existing analysis by Fan (2017). Furthermore, we argue that despite the flexible ordering of the actor and the undergoer arguments at the similar surface forms of the Excessive SVC, they take different positions in expressions that are in different sequences. In this case, the undergoer argument is always the subject; the actor argument functions as an external topic when it occurs before the undergoer argument and it shows similarities to an inner topic when it occurs after the undergoer argument. Nevertheless, unlike with inner topics, the actor argument that occurs after the subject of the Excessive SVC is restricted to the actor/causer role.

Many East Asian languages have possessive passives, whose subjects are interpreted as the possessor of the direct object. This paper investigates Japanese Possessive Passives (JPPs) and proposes that there are two types of possessive passives in Japanese: one with a ‘by-phrase’ headed by ni (ni JPPs) and the other with a ‘by-phrase’ headed by ni yotte (ni yotte JPPs). While previous studies assumed that JPPs are a sub-type of indirect passive, I propose that such an analysis is untenable. Instead, JPPs exhibit the same dichotomy as ni-passives and ni yotte-passives exhibit (Kuroda 1979, Kitagawa & Kuroda 1992): While subjects of ni JPPs are base-generated like ni-passives, subjects of ni yotte JPPs undergo NP movement like ni yotte-passives.

This study investigates the semantic variations of three near-synonymous space particle constructions of containment in Chinese: [zài NP lǐ/nèi/zhōng]. While previous work has mostly applied qualitative analyses of the semantic differences between these particles, this study presents a corpus-based analysis examining the relationship between space particles and their co-occurring landmarks in the locative construction. Two quantitative analyses were conducted: a multiple distinctive collexeme analysis and a post-hoc semantic analysis. Our results suggest the following. First, lǐ is a more unmarked particle in encoding containment, co-occurring with both canonical landmarks and a wider range of entities. Second, nèi shows a strong preference for landmarks denoting temporal concepts; this metaphorical use often implies a preplanned objective in the proposition, with the landmark as an intended deadline. Finally, zhōng shows a strong connection to landmarks denoting high-dynamicity events. This extended use often comes with a marked aspectual reading of the landmark.

This paper reexamines the conceptual metaphor time passing is motion and deals with the problem of mapping inconsistency between the “moving ego” and “moving time” models in this conceptual metaphor. We argue that time is conceptualized as a system consisting of a dynamic component and a static component, which we call time-flow and time-landscape respectively. Adopting the notion of relative motion, we propose that the “moving ego” and “moving time” viewpoints are actually due to a shift in perspective within the same frame of relative motion. We then propose a unified metaphor about time passing, namely time passing is relative motion. In this metaphor, the ego is carried by the time-flow to move past time-landmarks over the time-landscape. We also propose that time is specifically conceptualized as a river in Chinese under this conceptual metaphor.