A Corpus-based Study On The Phrase Characteristics Of Chinese Unaccusative Verbs

Since Perlmutter proposed Unaccusative Hypothesis in 1978,it has become a hot topic for linguists in various countries.In China,scholars explore the connotation of this hypothesis,interpret specific language phenomenon based on it,or study learners’acquisition of unaccusative verbs instead of studying the phrase characteristics of unaccusative verbs.In response,this thesis combines Unaccusative Hypothesis and related classification criteria with the latest theory of phraseology—Meaning-shift Unit.Based on the corpus,Modern Chinese Corpus of the National Language Committee(MCCNLC for short),this thesis explores the phrase characteristics of Chinese unaccusative verbs"Chuxian"and"Xiaoshi"~1.On the one hand,we analyze the manifestations of Chinese unaccusative verbs Chuxian and Xiaoshi.And on the other hand,the relationship between the two’s phrase characteristics and manifestations are analyzed in the aspects of their co-selected patterns,meaning-shift units and local grammars.Based on co-selection patterns,their meaning-shift units are determined especially,their semantic prosody.And then their local grammars are formed based on their meaning-shift unit,which integrates lexis-grammar-meaning into one.Research questions of this thesis are:1)What are the manifestations of Chinese unaccusative verb Chuxian and Xiaoshi?2)What are the phrase characteristics of Chinese unaccusative verbs in different manifestations?3)What are the differences and similarity of Chinese unaccusative verbs Chuxian and Xiaoshi?Through data analysis,the results show:1)Chuxian has two kinds of manifestations,among which surface unaccusativity is dominant.As for Xiaoshi,its manifestation is relatively simple that only appears in the form of deep unaccusativity.2)Chuxian have four meaning-shift units.They are about describing the appearance of something or someone in an objective,negative or positive way and giving some suggestions.Among them,the first three Meaning-Shift Units have a variant that exist in the same semantic prosody.Besides,its Meaning-Shift Units have relation to its manifestation,which mainly appear in the form of SU.Similar to Chuxian,Xiaoshi has three meaning-shift units,which describes the disappearance of something or someone in an objective,negative or positive way.But there is no variant.And there has no relationship between its Meaning-Shift Units and manifestations for its only usage of Deep Unaccusativity.3)The local grammars of Chuxian and Xiaoshi integrate co-selected elements from the two dimensions of the syntagmatic axis and the paradigmatic axis,and integrate lexis,grammar and meaning into a whole.But local grammars of Chuxian are different in different manifestations.When it is used in the form of Deep Unaccusativity,the types of modifiers before and after verb Chuxian are different,while the noun heads are different in the form of Surface Unaccusativity.Besides,the range of auxiliary verbs co-occurred with Chuxian is larger in the form of Deep Unaccusativity than that in the form of Surface Unaccusativity.As for Xiaoshi,there is no relationship between its local grammar and manifestations.The research not only reveals the phrases features of specific Chinese unaccusative verbs Chuxian and Xiaoshi in different manifestations,but also provides a new perspective and inspiration for the future study on the characteristics of Chinese unaccusative verbs.