A Contrastive Study On Semantic Features Of Desiderative Verbs In English And Chinese

A sentence consists of words and phrases according to certain combination rules. It has different combination.rules used by different verbs. This paper analyses 8 English desiderative verbs (DV) ("expect", "hope", "wish", "want", "crave", "desire", "hanker", "yearn") and 7 Chinese DV("希望","愿","渴望","盼望","期望","想","要")on a semantic level. The aim of this paper is to discuss the essential attributes of DV, and to discuss the semantic features of internal and external argument of DV in a DV sentence.The paper uses a contrastive linguistic approach and componential analysis to extract the core semantic features of DV, include the same semantic features: [+DESIDERATIVE], [+MENTALITY] and distinctive semantic feature: [±CONSIDER STATE], [±RATIONAL DRIVER], [±SUBJECT], [±PERSISTENT STATE]. After using the results above to make four kinds of standard classification (Action Real Virtual, Action Drive Source,), the writer then analyses the semantic features of internal and external argument of DV at different angles based on the result above and concludes that the semantic features of external argument of DV have not only [+HUMAN], [+DESIRE], but also [+GROUP], [+CAPABILITY] (these features are extracted in different contexts and do not exist at same time.). Furthermore the semantic features of internal argument of DV are different, e.g. English verbs " wish" and Chinese verbs"希望,愿,期望,想,要"cannot connect with the nominal element directly, but other verbs which can have distinctive features. All of English and Chinese DV can connect with predicative constituents as their internal argument, but also have limits, e.g. the usage of "wish" and "hope" is similar, their core distinctive features are [+CHANGE] and [+PAST], i.e. sometimes they can replace each other in a sentence. The semantic features of internal argument of all English and Chinese desiderative verbs might be [+ACTIVITY], [+BEHAVIOR], [+STATUS] or [+SENSE]. The semantic feature of internal and external argument could be similar or opposite when they are coexisting. However, a connective link can also be found in the deep relationship of semantics which can connect the whole sentence, i.e. there are similar or related semantic features of every component in the sentence.