Academic Paper |
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| Title: | A multi-dimensional approach to the category ‘verb’ in Cantonese |
| Author: | Elaine J. Francis |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Homepage: | http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ejfranci/ejfrancis.htm |
| Institution: | Purdue University |
| Author: | Stephen Matthews |
| Homepage: | http://www.hku.hk/linguist/staff/sjm.htm |
| Institution: | University of Hong Kong |
| Linguistic Field: | Syntax |
| Subject Language: |
Chinese, Yue
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| Abstract: | Cantonese exhibits a pattern of variation among verbs that has often been interpreted as distinguishing a category of adjectives or a subcategory of adjectival verbs. However, neither of these approaches takes into account the complex patterns of overlap among the purported categories or subcategories. To account for these patterns, we propose a multi-dimensional, feature-based analysis, whereby morphological, phonological, syntactic, and semantic features interact to determine the distribution of each verb. While all verbs bear the same syntactic category feature, there are other features that affect the distribution of verbs independently of syntactic category. For example, constructions that resemble adjectival constructions in other languages license the semantic classes of verbs that are permanent, gradable, and/or non-dynamic, while constructions that resemble verbal constructions in other languages license the semantic classes of verbs that are dynamic, non-gradable, and/or non-permanent. Typological implications of this analysis are also considered. |
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This article appears in Journal of Linguistics Vol. 41, Issue 2, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST . |
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