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A multi-dimensional approach to the category ‘verb’ in Cantonese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2005

ELAINE J. FRANCIS  and
STEPHEN MATTHEWS
ELAINE J. FRANCIS
Affiliation:
Purdue University
STEPHEN MATTHEWS
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
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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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , July 2005 , pp. 269 - 305
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We gratefully acknowledge Nik Gisborne, David Kemmerer, Robert D. Borsley, two anonymous JL referees, and two other anonymous referees for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this paper. We would also like to thank Winnie Yiu, Richard Wong, and Virginia Yip for their assistance with the Cantonese data. Our research was funded in part by a Research Initiation Grant awarded in September 2000 to Elaine J. Francis by the University Research Committee of the University of Hong Kong.