Browsing by Author "Liu, Meichun"

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Free Alternation? A Study on Grammatical Packaging of Excessive Predication in Mandarin Chinese
(2013-01-01)
Liu, Meichun
;
Hu, Chia-yin
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外國語文學系
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Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
The paper explores an interesting case where two distinct patterns of excessive predication are apt to be mistaken as a free grammatical alternation without a semantic change. The patterns involve the use of an excessive marker si 'die', in predicating an extreme emotion, as in Wo xianmu si ta de haoyun le 'I am envious of his good luck to death.' vs. Ta de haoyun xianmu si wo le 'His good luck made me envious of him to death.' Different from traditional approaches to the seeming form-meaning mismatch, this paper proposes that the two highly correlated expressions be viewed as two distinct "constructions" defined in the notion of Construction Grammar (Kay & Fillmore 1999, Goldberg 1995, 2006): Excessive Degree Construction (EDC) vs. Excessive Impact Construction (EIC). The two constructions arise from two types of grammatical packaging in response to two different semantic perspectives. The degree-measuring EDC profiles an Experiencer-to-Stimulus relation, conforming to the default pattern of stative predication; the impact-depicting ETC profiles an Affector-to-Affectee relation, projecting a more dynamic, eventive scenario where a victim undergoes an affective impact. Illustrated with live examples from web corpora, the two constructions are further contrasted with a thorough discussion of their grammatical and semantic correlates. The case under study demonstrates how conceptual alternation can result in constructional alternation, whereby the surface word order change manifests a change in semantic relation. The study ultimately probes into the possible range of syntax-semantics interactions realized in Mandarin.
NEURAL CORRELATES OF CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT CREATIVITY: AN FMRI STUDY
(2017-12-01)
Tseng, De-Jung
;
Wu, Changwei
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Liu, Meichun
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Huang, Hsu-Wen
;
Huang, Chih-Mao
Verbal Semantics and Cross-frame Interaction: A Study of Mandarin Verbal Evaluation Verbs
(2010-01-01)
Chien, Manting
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Liu, Meichun
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外國文學與語言學碩士班
;
Graduate Institute of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics
This study aims to provide a frame-based analysis of Mandarin verbal evaluation verbs which inherit semantic as well as grammatical properties from both the Judgment and Communication domains. Mandarin verbal evaluation verbs are unique in that they inherit from more than :one frame, displaying cross-categorial features. However, the cross-categorial properties have not been clearly investigated and adequately defined in previous studies. Adopting the Frame Semantics approach (Fillmore & Atkins 1992) and the hierarchical frame structures (Liu & Chang 2005), this study aims to investigate: 1) the form-function correlations lexicalized in verbal evaluation verbs; 2) the distinctions of Mandarin verbal evaluation verbs; and 3) the cross-frame interactions between statement and judgment verbs. By mapping the syntactic realizations and semantic properties, two subgroups of Mandarin verbal evaluation verbs conveying speaker's judgment are found: 1) Statement Evaluation frame and 2) Evaluation_direct address frame. To conclude, this study is significant in exploring the complex cross-frame interactions displayed in semantically multi-faceted verbs, ultimately probes into the range of possible frame-to-frame relations in Mandarin.