When Chinese language learners reach intermediate level, approximately in the second year of their Chinese study, they start to encounter near-synonyms, words that have the same translations in English, and characters that look alike. These words are often called 易混淆词 yi hunxiao ci “easily confusable words” by Chinese scholars. This lexical acquisition study researches a group of near synonyms about Chinese verbs of ‘change’, which either express a stative change (where an argument which expresses the result of the change is required) or causative change (where an argument which expresses the instigator or cause of the change is required). The study selected seven typical Chinese verbs, which are approximately equivalent to the words ‘to change’ and ‘to become’ in English. This study explores how the seven verbs of ‘change’ are different from each other through both literature review and an analysis of native speakers’ corpus. Among Chinese verbs of ‘change’, the most difficult pairs are 变成 biancheng and 成为 chengwei, 改 gai, 变 bian and 改变 gaibian, because of their morphological, semantic and syntactic similarities. 变成 biancheng and 成为 chengwei are very close in meaning, however, 成为 chengwei indicates a change that has gone through a development, while 变成 biancheng emphasizes on the comparison of status before and after the action. 成为 chengwei is used mainly to describe getting a new job or obtaining a special status, while 变成 biancheng is mostly to describe physical changes. As for 改 gai and 变 bian, under the sense of ‘to change’, 变 bian is more often used as an intransitive verb to express a stative change, 改 gai in contrast, is frequently used to express a causative change. As for collocations, 改 gai, 变 bian and 改变 gaibian collocate with very different nouns and other syntactic structures. This acquisition study then adopts an interlanguage analysis and experiment test as means to determine the effect that these semantic differences have on language learners. Heritage language learners have demonstrated advantages since the first year. Participants in their fourth year of Chinese classes have demonstrated their full knowledges on the verbs’ pronunciation and meaning, including secondary meaning of polysemy, which are comparable to Chinese speakers. Nevertheless, foreign language learners after four years of learning have not yet achieved native level in term of using the verbs correctly in sentences. The most difficult lexical pairs are 改 gai and 变 bian; 变成 biancheng and 成为 chengwei. Even though heritage and foreign language learners have different learning patterns, it is found that as students proceed in studying Chinese, their performance on Chinese verbs of ‘change’ improves in U-shape patterns. With in-depth comparison and analysis, it is determined that the causes of difficulties may come from English and Chinese differences, complexities of Chinese verbs of change, transfer of training.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the applicability and suitability of the syntactic decomposition approach to account for the causative and anticausative alternation in Kikongo (Kizombo) in terms of the structural nodes of Voice, vCAUS and Root as posited in this approach to (anti-)causativity (see Alexiadou 2010). In addition, the aspectual approach postulated by Vendler (1957) and further developed by Verkuyl (1972) and Smith (1997) is invoked for the reason that the two alternants in the causative and anticausative alternation in Kikongo (Kizombo) are associated with aspectual verb class differences. Research on the causative and anticausative alternation has long been the focus of extensive work in typological and theoretical linguistics. Two central issues revolve around the debate: first the properties of meaning that determine the alternation and the derivational relationship between the alternants, and second, the relation between the causative alternation and other transitivity alternations, e.g. passives and middles. This dissertation demonstrates that there is a wide range of acceptability judgments associated with anticausative uses of Kizombo in externally and internally caused change of state and change of location/position verbs. The verb root is the element of meaning that allows the Kizombo verbs to alternate irrespective of their verb classes, including agentive verb roots. All the causative variants of externally caused verbs are morphologically unmarked, but all the anticausative variants are morphologically marked. However, all the internally caused change of state verbs are morphologically unmarked. Both the causative and anticausative variants of change of location/position verbs are morphologically unmarked. The anticausative and passive sentences can license an external causer through an implicit argument. While the passive verb sentences can be modified by by-agent, purpose clause and agent-oriented phrases, the anticausative sentences can be modified by instrument, natural force, agent-oriented and by-self phrases. The acceptability of modifiers with anticausatives and passives presupposes a presence of a causer in both constructions. The causative form of change of location/position verbs is syntactically intransitive (i.e. in the locative-subject alternation), but its anticausative variant acquires a transitive-like form. Thus, the concept of causative is related to cause and effect of the argument participating in the process. The study considers competing approaches concerning the derivational direction of the causative and anticausative alternation. Given the data in Kizombo, it is argued that the syntactic decomposition approach is the most appropriate to account for the example sentences in the causative and anticausative constructions. The transitive approach could probably deal with the externally caused change of state verbs, as discussed in chapter 6, but would face a challenge relating to the change of location/position verbs because none of the variants is morphologically marked. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het die toepaslikheid en geskiktheid van die benadering tot sintaktiese ontleding ondersoek ten einde rekenskap te gee van die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe wisseling in Kikongo (Kizombo) ten opsigte van die strukturele vertakpunte van Voice, vCAUS en Root soos in hierdie benadering tot (anti-)kousatiwiteit gestel (sien Alexiadou 2010). Daarbenewens is die aspektiese benadering soos voorgestaan deur Vendler (1957) en verder ontwikkel deur Verkuyl (1972) en Smith (1997) gebruik omdat die twee alternante in die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe wisseling in Kikongo (Kizombo) met aspektiese verskille in werkwoordklasse geassosieer word. Navorsing oor die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe wisseling is reeds lank die fokus van omvangryke werk in tipologiese en teoretiese linguistiek. Twee sentrale kwessies word by die debat betrek: eerstens die eienskappe van betekenis wat die wisseling en die afleidende verband tussen die alternante bepaal, en tweedens, die verhouding tussen die kousatiewe wisseling en ander transitiwiteitswisselinge, bv. passief- en middelkonstruksies. Hierdie verhandeling toon dat daar ʼn wye reeks aanvaarbaarheidsuitsprake is wat met antikousatiewe gebruik van Kizombo by verandering van toestand en verandering van plasing/posisie van werkwoorde wat ekstern en intern veroorsaak word, geassosieer word. Die werkwoordwortel is die betekeniselement wat dit vir die Kizombo-werkwoorde moontlik maak om te wissel ongeag hulle werkwoordklasse, met inbegrip van agenswerkwoordwortels. Al die kousatiewe variante van ekstern veroorsaakte werkwoorde is morfologies ongemerk, maar al die antikousatiewe variante is morfologies gemerk. Al die intern veroorsaakte verandering van toestandswerkwoorde is morfologies ongemerk. Beide die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe variante van verandering van plasing/posisie van werkwoorde is morfologies ongemerk. Die antikousatiewe en passiewe sinne kan ʼn eksterne doener deur ʼn implisiete argument toelaat. Terwyl die sinne met passiewe werkwoorde gewysig kan word deur deur-agent, doel-sinsdeel en agent-georiënteerde frases, kan die antikousatiewe sinne gewysig word deur instrument-, natuurlike krag-, agent-georiënteerde en deur-self-frases. Die aanvaarbaarheid van modifiseerders met antikousatiewe en passiewes voorveronderstel ʼn aanwesigheid van ʼn doener in albei konstruksies. Die kousatiewe vorm van verandering van plasing/posisiewerkwoorde is sintakties onoorganklik (m.a.w. in die lokatief–onderwerp-wisseling), maar die antikousatiewe variant daarvan verkry ʼn oorganklik-agtige vorm. Die begrip van kousatief hou dus verband met oorsaak en gevolg van die argument wat aan die proses deelneem. Die studie neem kompeterende benaderings met betrekking tot die afleidende rigting van die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe wisseling in ag. Gegewe die data in Kizombo, word aangevoer dat die benadering van sintaktiese ontleding die geskikste is om rekenskap te gee van die voorbeeldsinne in die kousatiewe en antikousatiewe konstruksies. Die oorganklike benadering sou waarskynlik aan die ekstern veroorsaakte verandering van toestandswerkwoorde, soos in hoofstuk 6 bespreek, aandag kon skenk maar sou voor ʼn uitdaging met betrekking tot die verandering van plasing/posisiewerkwoorde te staan kom aangesien geeneen van die variante morfologies gemerk is nie.

This thesis argues for a semi-lexical interpretation of Czech modal verbs. It demonstrates that Czech modals participate in syntactic structures that contain a finite verb followed by multiple infinitives (verb clusters), such as Jan musel chtít začít studovat lingvistiku ‘John had to want to begin studying linguistics.’ The term Complex Verbal Domain (CVD) is devised for the verbal part of these structures. The analysis seeks to offer a unified account of modal verbs in Czech in respect of their subcategorization frame in the Lexicon and semantic properties (‘modal meaning’). It also attempts to clarify the confusion regarding modal verbs and modality in traditional Czech grammars by shifting the attention from pragmatics to an approach based on recent development of generative syntax (Chomsky 1998, 2000, 2001). Following the examination of syntactic behaviour of Czech modals in the CVD structure, the thesis proceeds to modify Emonds’ (1985, 2000) theory of semilexicality. This approach assumes that Czech modals are neither fully functional (due to properties such as rich morphological paradigm, ability to undergo Negation, Reflexivization and PF movement), nor fully lexical (they are unable to take clausal complements and distinguish between aspectual pairs). The semi-lexical analysis also shows that there is evidence for the existence of two types of Czech modals, True modal verbs (TMVs) and Optional modal verbs (OMVs). Whilst the former cannot nominalize or denote events, but are able to convey epistemic meaning, the latter undergo nominalization and are capable of event denotation, but do not attain epistemic reading. The semi-lexical properties of both TMVs and OMVs are syntactically reflected in their specific subcategorization frame X, +MODAL, +mod, +__ [V, INF]. The cognitive syntactic feature +MODAL cospecifies the syntactic derivation of Czech modal verbs in the ‘light’ vº, which takes an infinitival VP as a complement. Therefore, I argue that the CVD is syntactically vP. If the original CVD structure involves multiple infinitives (Jan vPmusí VPchtít(INF) začít(INF) číst(INF) tu knihu ‘John has to want to begin reading that book’), the VP complement has characteristics of a flat structure, adapted from Emonds (1999a, 1999b, 2001). On the other hand, +mod is a semantic feature that specifies the lexical behaviour of Czech modals and conveys the ‘modal meaning’, which is formalized in terms of possible worlds semantics as quantification over the modal base. The semi-lexical analysis also investigates the root v. epistemic dichotomy. The thesis argues that this dichotomy does not affect the unified theory of modality in Czech in terms of its derivational and semantic status, but is a result of covert processes at the level of Logical Form (LF), which realize different levels of modal quantification.

Thesis (M. A. (African Languages)) -- University of the North, 1974 / Refer to the document

This report investigates the causativization patterns of verbs of eating and drinking from a typological perspective, arguing that ingestive verbs may be grouped together with middle verbs with respect to causativization. It is argued that both ingestive verbs and middle verbs are lexically reflexive and, in some languages, their causative variants are derived from their non-causative variants by an antireflexivization operation that delinks the verbs' coidentified arguments. Evidence from English and Marathi shows that such an operation is plausible as a causativization strategy on both semantic and morphological grounds. / text

The present research focuses on the Lithuanian modal verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’. The purpose of the research is to analyse the verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’ within the framework of grammaticalization and to identify what aspects of grammaticalization are relevant (if at all) to the verbs under study. The study also aims at exploring the factors that trigger the rise of modal meanings and at comparing the semantic properties of the verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in contemporary Lithuanian and in Old Lithuanian writings (the 16th and 17th centuries). The data of the contemporary Lithuanian language has been compiled from the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language, namely its Central newspapers and Fiction parts. The examples of Old Lithuanian have been extracted from three Old Lithuanian Writings: “Postilė” by J. Bretkūnas (1591), “Postilė” by M. Daukša (1599), and “Punktai Sakymų” by K. Sirvydas (1629; 1644). The corpus-based study has shown that the verbs under analysis satisfy the parameters of frequency and polifunctionality. However, they do not exhibit any morphological or morphosyntactic properties that set them apart from the other lexical verbs. In Old Lithuanian Writings the verb reik(ė)ti ‘need’ is used as a modal verb while the verbs gauti ‘get’ and tekti ‘be gotten’ are rarely used in their modal meanings. In contemporary Lithuanian, reik(ė)ti ‘need’ and tekti ‘be gotten’... [to full text] / Disertacijos tyrimo objektu pasirinkti trys lietuvių kalbos veiksmažodžiai, – gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti, – iki šiol sulaukę mažai lingvistų dėmesio. Tikslas – ištirti lietuvių kalbos modalinius veiksmažodžius gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti iš gramatinimo reiškinio perspektyvos, išsiaiškinti, kurie gramatinimo parametrai relevantiški (jei išvis relevantiški) nagrinėjamiems lietuvių kalbos veiksmažodžiams, išnagrinėti šių veiksmažodžių modalinės semantikos ypatumus, modalinės reikšmės susidarymą lemiančius veiksnius, pateikti nagrinėjamų veiksmažodžių semantinį aprašą ir palyginti jų vartosenos ypatumus senojo periodo (XVI-XVII a.) ir dabartinėje lietuvių kalboje. Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos medžiaga surinkta iš „Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos tekstyno“ grožinės literatūros ir publicistikos patekstynio. Senosios lietuvių kalbos pavyzdžiai surinkti iš trijų senųjų lietuvių kalbos raštų: J. Bretkūno „Postilės“ (1591), M. Daukšos „Postilės“ (1599), ir K. Sirvydo „Punktai sakymų“ (1629; 1644). Tyrimas parodė, kad analizuoti veiksmažodžiai tenkina dažnumo ir polifunkciškumo parametrus. Vis dėlto gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti neišsiskiria griežtu sisteminiu struktūrinių požymių rinkiniu, kuris apibrėžtų modalinį jų statusą. Senuosiuose lietuvių kalbos raštuose veiksmažodis reik(ė)ti funkcionuoja kaip modalinis veiksmažodis, o veiksmažodžiai gauti ir tekti retai vartojami modalinėmis reikšmėmis. Dabartinėje lietuvių kalboje reik(ė)ti ir tekti įsitvirtinę kaip modaliniai veiksmažodžiai, o gauti tėra... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Disertacijos tyrimo objektu pasirinkti trys lietuvių kalbos veiksmažodžiai, – gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti, – iki šiol sulaukę mažai lingvistų dėmesio. Tikslas – ištirti lietuvių kalbos modalinius veiksmažodžius gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti iš gramatinimo reiškinio perspektyvos, išsiaiškinti, kurie gramatinimo parametrai relevantiški (jei išvis relevantiški) nagrinėjamiems lietuvių kalbos veiksmažodžiams, išnagrinėti šių veiksmažodžių modalinės semantikos ypatumus, modalinės reikšmės susidarymą lemiančius veiksnius, pateikti nagrinėjamų veiksmažodžių semantinį aprašą ir palyginti jų vartosenos ypatumus senojo periodo (XVI-XVII a.) ir dabartinėje lietuvių kalboje. Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos medžiaga surinkta iš „Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos tekstyno“ grožinės literatūros ir publicistikos patekstynio. Senosios lietuvių kalbos pavyzdžiai surinkti iš trijų senųjų lietuvių kalbos raštų: J. Bretkūno „Postilės“ (1591), M. Daukšos „Postilės“ (1599), ir K. Sirvydo „Punktai sakymų“ (1629; 1644). Tyrimas parodė, kad analizuoti veiksmažodžiai tenkina dažnumo ir polifunkciškumo parametrus. Vis dėlto gauti, tekti ir reik(ė)ti neišsiskiria griežtu sisteminiu struktūrinių požymių rinkiniu, kuris apibrėžtų modalinį jų statusą. Senuosiuose lietuvių kalbos raštuose veiksmažodis reik(ė)ti funkcionuoja kaip modalinis veiksmažodis, o veiksmažodžiai gauti ir tekti retai vartojami modalinėmis reikšmėmis. Dabartinėje lietuvių kalboje reik(ė)ti ir tekti įsitvirtinę kaip modaliniai veiksmažodžiai, o gauti tėra... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The present research focuses on the Lithuanian modal verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’. The purpose of the research is to analyse the verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’ within the framework of grammaticalization and to identify what aspects of grammaticalization are relevant (if at all) to the verbs under study. The study also aims at exploring the factors that trigger the rise of modal meanings and at comparing the semantic properties of the verbs gauti ‘get’, tekti ‘be gotten’ and reik(ė)ti ‘need’ in contemporary Lithuanian and in Old Lithuanian writings (the 16th and 17th centuries). The data of the contemporary Lithuanian language has been compiled from the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language, namely its Central newspapers and Fiction parts. The examples of Old Lithuanian have been extracted from three Old Lithuanian Writings: “Postilė” by J. Bretkūnas (1591), “Postilė” by M. Daukša (1599), and “Punktai Sakymų” by K. Sirvydas (1629; 1644). The corpus-based study has shown that the verbs under analysis satisfy the parameters of frequency and polifunctionality. However, they do not exhibit any morphological or morphosyntactic properties that set them apart from the other lexical verbs. In Old Lithuanian Writings the verb reik(ė)ti ‘need’ is used as a modal verb while the verbs gauti ‘get’ and tekti ‘be gotten’ are rarely used in their modal meanings. In contemporary Lithuanian, reik(ė)ti ‘need’ and tekti ‘be gotten’... [to full text]

There is no abstract available for this dissertation. / Department of English

Orientador: Marize Mattos Dall’Aglio-Hattnher / Resumo: Esta tese consiste em uma análise dos verbos do português brasileiro em estruturas apresentacionais não-existenciais, que são estruturas que ocorrem em ordem V+SN. A tese é orientada pelos preceitos de teorias funcionalistas, mais precisamente pela Gramática Funcional, de Dik (1997), pela estrutura da informação, de Prince (1981), pela classificação semântica dos verbos de Borba (1990, 1996) e pela ordem dos constituintes no português do Brasil proposta por Pezatti (2012a, 2014). Para a realização do estudo, utilizou-se um córpus de língua oral, com 48 entrevistas, nas quais foram levantadas ocorrências com estruturas verbais construída em ordem V+SN. Foram utilizados três critérios para a análise dessas estruturas: o critério morfossintático, no qual se verificou o grau de concordância entre o verbo e o SN posposto ao verbo, e a possibilidade de alteração da ordem V+SN; o critério semântico, no qual se verificou a classificação semântica e o aspecto do verbo, o papel e os traços semânticos do SN posposto, bem como o tipo de entidade representada por ele; e o critério pragmático, no qual se verificou o estatuto do informacional do SN posposto. Partindo da hipótese de que os verbos que compõem estruturas apresentacionais nãoexistenciais não compõem um grupo homogêneo, procurou-se investigar como se constroem as estruturas formadas por esses verbos e como cada verbo identificado no córpus se comporta morfossintática, semântica e pragmaticamente. A análise dos dados resultou na ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This thesis consists of an analysis of Brazilian Portuguese verbs in non-existential presentational structures, which are structures that occur in the V+SN order. This thesis is oriented by precepts of the functionalist theories, more precisely by Dik’s Functional Grammar (1997), Prince’s (1981) information structure, Borba’s (1990, 1996) semantic classification of the verbs and by the order of the constituents in Brazilian Portuguese proposed by Pezatti (2012a, 2014). The data came from an oral language corpus, with 48 interviews, in which the occurrences with verbal structures in the V+SN order were raised. Three criteria were used to analyze these structures: the morphosyntactic one, in which the agreement between the verb and the SN after the verb was verified, as well as the possibility of alteration of the V+SN order; the semantic one, in which the semantic classification and the aspect of the verb were verified, the role and the semantic features of the SN after the verb as well as the kind of the entity represented by it; and the pragmatic criterion in which the informational status of the postponed SN was verified. Assuming that the verbs in the non-existential presentational structures do not compose a homogeneous group, we tried to investigate how the structures formed by these verbs are created and how each verb identified in the corpus behave syntactically, semantically and pragmatically. The data analysis resulted in the identification of four types of presentat... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

This thesis focuses on research of classifier verbs in Czech sign language. The aim of the thesis is to describe different types of classifier verbs in Czech sign language based on language material collected from deaf users of Czech sign language by means of the Verb of motion production. The thesis defines classifier verbs of motion, location, visual and geometric description, and handling and also describes various types of classifier handshapes that form them for a semantic perspective. Key words: verbs in Czech sign language, classifier, classifier verbs