A Contrastive Study Of English And Chinese Causative Verbs

Causation is pervasive in human languages. Causative verbs, as the most direct and prototypical way of expressing causation, have long been focused on in the field of linguistic studies and language teaching. Conventional linguists have confined their studies on causation to the semantic and syntactic features of causative verbs, not paying enough attention to the relations between the conceptualization of causation and causative expressions. Besides, though they have studied various aspects of causation, the contrastive study of English and Chinese causative verbs is still at the beginning stage. Thus, a contrastive study on causative verbs has its great significance in theoretical studies and practical teaching.In this thesis, causation is regarded as an important cognitive category. Much effort is devoted to the exploration of how causation is conceptualized, how causative verbs are represented in English and Chinese and the interpretation of the similarities and differences between English and Chinese causative verbs.Causation, as a human basic concept, is based on human experience of causative events in the actual world. Its essence is a kind of force transmission. This force is transmitted from the causer to the causee so that the latter undergoes a change of state or performs an action. Originally, it is a physical one, with physical contact between entities. Through metaphor, the physical force is mapped onto the domain of the mental world and expressed as a kind of mental force.Causative verbs refer to those which express a causal relation between two entities or events. Conventional linguists classify it into three subtypes: lexical causative verbs, morphological causative verbs and analytic causative verbs. The former two subtypes are at the lexicallevel, while the latter is at the syntactic level. Under this classification, linguistic phenomena at different linguistic levels are classified at the same level, which makes it difficult for us to interpret and learn causation. Therefore, in this thesis, we propose two new classifications. First, from the angle of meaning, with the criterion of whether the volition of the causer is involved, we classify causative verbs into objective causative verbs and subjective causative verbs. Objective causative verbs depict force transmission without the involvement of the volition of the causer;thus, the causer can be both animate and inanimate. They can be decomposed into two semantic primitives: force and transition. Subjective causative verbs depict force transmission with the involvement of the volition of the causer;thus, the causer should be animate. They can be decomposed into three semantic primitives: purpose, force and transition. Second, from the angle of form, with the criterion of whether there are causative markers, we classify causative verbs into derivative causative verbs and non-derivative causative verbs. Derivative causative verbs have causative markers while non-derivative causative verbs have no causative markers.On the basis of the two classifications, we have contrasted causative verbs in both English and Chinese at the semantic level and the syntactic level. After much data analysis and contrast, we found that English and Chinese causative verbs are similar in semantic features, but different in form and in some syntactic representations. Objective causative verbs in both English and Chinese have such semantic features as force transmission, change of state and no involvement of the causer's volition;subjective causative verbs in English and Chinese have such semantic features as force transmission, change of state and involvement of the causer's volition. The conceptualization of causationdetermines that causative verbs are transitive;hence, at the syntactic level, both English and Chinese causative constructions have the basic sentence structures: SVO and SVOC. But in ways of expressing causation and syntactic features, English and Chinese causative verbs differ from each other greatly and have their own specific linguistic representations. English verbs usually denote both actions and results, but their equivalents in Chinese are often Verb+ Result (VR) phrases which indicate fulfillment. VR phrases are highly productive. They are widely used to denote an action and its fulfillment at the same time. Besides, in English, the form of complement in SVOC shows great diversity. It can be in the form of infinitives, -ed/-ing participles, adjectives, adverbs, or prepositional phrases, etc. In Chinese, however, the complement in SVOC is generally represented by a bare verb.In sum, there are diversified ways of expressing causation in English but in Chinese, the ways of expressing causation are relatively fewer in kind. We attribute these to basic differences between the two languages in typology and in the ways of conceptualization of causation between English-speaking and Chinese-speaking peoples.To sum up, in this thesis, we have combined the conceptualization of causation with the interpretation of semantic and syntactic features of causative verbs in English and Chinese. It provides us a new perspective for future contrastive studies of English and Chinese verbs.