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LINGUIST List 22.1625

Mon Apr 11 2011

Qs: Denominalization: Event- vs. Entity-Denoting Verbs

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        1.     Jing Yang , Denominalization: Event- vs. Entity-Denoting Verbs
Message 1: Denominalization: Event- vs. Entity-Denoting Verbs
Date: 07-Apr-2011
From: Jing Yang <emmayyahoo.cn>
Subject: Denominalization: Event- vs. Entity-Denoting Verbs
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I argue that Mandarin disyllabic nouns incorporate (or conflate) with
null light verbs to derive disyllabic verbs (cf. the English noun "laugh"
deriving a verb "to laugh"). Unlike English, however, Mandarin entity-
denoting nouns do not become denominal verbs, e.g. there are no
Mandarin counterparts for "The mud caked" from the noun "cake."

Mandarin differentiates between event(uality)-denoting and entity-
denoting nouns. Mandarin has two nouns: "dongxi" (for entities) and
"shiqing" (for non-entities), both corresponding to the English "things".
For example, Mandarin uses "shiqing" in (1) and (2), but "dongxi" in
(3).

1. Something happened. (event)
2. He told me something. (fact)
3. He bought something. (entity)

Probably, the distinction between entities and non-entities in the
nominal domain reflects a similar conceptual distinction. Of course,
English has words like "entity" and "event", but they are not commonly
used compared with "things". Mandarin has a cover term "shiwu"
('entities and events'); but it is too formal for everyday communications.

My hypothesis:
If a language has different cover terms for entities and non-entities,
and both nouns are commonly used in everyday communications, then
this language does not have denominal verbs from entity-denoting
nouns.

By far, I've tried Google translation, logos dictionaries, WordNet, etc.
But the results are not satisfactory. They only provide general
information and different dictionaries may give me different translations.
I need fine linguistic details to test my hypothesis.

For those who would like to share some data with me, they may
consider translating the three sentences above (and maybe tell me
something about the denominal verbs in their languages as well). For
instance, Prof. Yap (personal communication) showed me that in
Malay, "benda" suits all the three cases, but "perkara" is only for (1).
This is one of the subtopics for my MPhil thesis. Many thanks for your
support.

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                            Semantics
                            Syntax
                            Typology 
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