A Corpus-based Contrastive Study On The Argument Realization Of English And Chinese Change-of-State Verbs

Change-of-State verbs (abbreviated as COS verbs) have received wide attention and study in the field of linguistics. The previous studies about English COS verbs are mainly theoretical explorings, and then empirical studies are needed. Besides, the studies of Chinese COS verbs are comparatively fewer. Based on Rappaport and Levin’s (1998) event structure theory, this thesis compares the argument realization between English and Chinese COS verbs.In this thesis, five internally caused COS verbs and seven externally caused COS verbs are selected from Levin’s (1993) classification of English verbs and then the proper Chinese counterparts are found to probe into the transitive uses of internally and externally caused COS verbs and the argument realization of COS verbs between the two languages under the internal and external causations respectively.The purpose of the study is:(1) to study the transitive uses of internally and externally caused COS verbs between English and Chinese; (2) to find the similarities and differences on the argument realization of English and Chinese COS verbs under the internal and external causations.The paper takes a corpus-based approach. By obtaining the data from COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) and MCC (Modern Chinese corpus), we compare the transitive uses of English COS verbs with those of Chinese and then study the argument realization between them under different causations. Following McKoon and Marfarland (2000), the study is conducted from three aspects:subjects of intransitive sentences, objects of transitive sentences and subjects of transitive sentences, and every subject and object is sorted into five categories:Artifacts, Nature, Body Parts, Animate, and Abstract during the analysis process.This thesis has mainly proposed three questions:(1) Do transitive uses appear in sentences of internally caused COS verbs? Are there any differences on transitive uses between English and Chinese COS verbs? (2) What are the similarities and differences between English and Chinese internally caused COS verbs in argument realization? (3) What are the similarities and differences between English and Chinese externally caused COS verbs in argument realization?The results of the data analysis are:(1) Internally caused COS verbs do appear in transitive sentences in English sentences, but the Chinese internally caused COS verbs do not have transitive uses. (2) For the comparison between English and Chinese internally caused verbs, only subjects of intransitive sentences need to be studied. The study proves that English tends to have artifacts and natural things as the subjects of intransitive sentences, while Chinese tends to have metaphorical use, i.e. abstract things as the subjects. (3) For the comparison between English and Chinese externally caused verbs, there is no significant difference between English and Chinese on the subjects of intransitive sentences, but significant differences arise across some categories on the objects and subjects of transitive sentences. English is more likely to have body parts as the objects of transitive sentences, and animate beings as the subjects of transitive sentences than Chinese.The conclusions based on the data are:(1) Chinese internally caused COS verbs do not have transitive uses as the English counterparts. The two verbs 腐蚀 and 侵蚀 are excluded from internally caused COS verbs, and 结冰 is excluded from externally caused COS verbs. (2) Owing to different language structures and uses, English and Chinese COS verbs have different transitive uses and argument realizations under internal and external causations.The thesis has some implications for the acquisition of English and Chinese COS verbs. In addition, the thesis will offer language learners some suggestions for the translation between English and Chinese COS verbs. One of those is that no perfect equivalence exists between English and Chinese COS verbs.This paper consists of six chapters:the first chapter introduces the topic, and then the significance and objectives of the study are demonstrated. The second chapter is literature review, which reviews the previous studies on English and Chinese COS verbs, so that the originality of the research can be concluded. The third chapter is theoretical framework, which mainly introduces the event structure theory, In chapter Four, the methodology of the study is stated in detail, including research questions, data collection, and procedure of analysis. The results of the study and discussion on the results are illustrated in detail in Chapter Five. Chapter Six is the conclusion of the study, including major findings, implications and limitations of the research, and suggestions for further research.