A Corpus-Based Study On Semantic-Syntactic Contrast Between English Give-Verbs And Chinese“Jiyu”(给予) Verbs

This article mainly focuses on the similarities and differences between Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs with the same prototype semantic meaning in the context of English and Chinese,and aims to illustrate a reasonable explanation.The aim of this paper is to give some reference for the research of Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs,and to offer some new methods for comparing Chinese and English verbs.Based on reviewing the studies on Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs,this study depends on COCA and CCL,draws on Levin（1993）’s classification of give-verbs,and refers to the HANYU DONGCI YONGFA CIDIAN,and finally selects three groups of give-verbs:“pass--递（di）,sell--卖（mai）,rent--租（zu）”which are the typical representatives of Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs.In the framework of linking theories,referring to the theoretical model of Thematic Hierarchy,Semantic Decomposition and Lexical Entailment as well as Thematic Proto-roles and Argument Selection,this paper examines the significant features of semantic and syntactic aspects of representative give-verbs and“jiyu”（给予）verbs,and attempts to explore the similarities and differences among their lexical semantics-syntax linking models.Based on statistics from two corpora,this article aims to discuss the following questions:What are the characteristics that Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs both contain in semantic meaning and syntactic structure?What are the similarities or differences among the semantic meaning and syntactic structure between Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs?Are there similarities or differences in semantics-syntax linking patterns between Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs under the guidance of the linking theories?And the major findings are summarized as follows:Firstly,Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs all contain the semantic features of[+extrospective],[+end point],[+autonomy]and[+displacement],and the most essential feature is[+give].However,Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs have shown subtle difference in semantic features.For instance,different position of“gei-给”can lead to different semantic meaning.Secondly,according to the research results from COCA and CCL corpus,all of the Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs can be used in the structure of“NP1+V+NP2+NP3”,“NP1+V+NP3”and“NP3+V+NP2”.Moreover,more abstract NP1 are used in Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs than English give-verbs.Besides,V_bare is apparently more frequently used in Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs than English give-verbs.In addition,Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs seems to be more flexible in its use.For example,some adjectives are more likely to add directly after“jiyu”（给予）verbs instead of give-verbs.Thirdly,the lexical semantics-syntax linking model of Chinese“jiyu”（给予）verbs and English give-verbs are almost the same.This is conformed to the principle that semantic meaning is closely related to syntactic structures.Nevertheless,there still exists differences when it comes to the position of thematic roles mapping to syntactic level.Only the agent of“mai-卖（sell）”can be projected to the object in the syntactic level and its patient can be projected to the subject.