Abstract:

The resultative sentences Baoyu qi-lei-le ma and Zhang San zhui-leile
Li Si have more than one possible meanings. A key concept in our new perspective on the Chinese resultatives is Theme, which refers to the argument that undergoes a change in state designated by R. According to the position of Theme in the sentence, the Chinese resultatives can be divided into two major categories: Cause Prominent Resultatives and Theme Prominent Resultatives. This is the basis on which ambiguous sentences are to be analyzed. Similar forms of resultatives afford more than one conceptual configurations. This is made possible by both the construction and the words used. The construction coerces the constituents, i.e., the verbs (adjectives) and nouns that enter into the construction, aligning their relationships therein and yielding the holistic event types of meanings. On the other hand, the syntactic and semantic properties of the words may also constrain the meanings of the whole construction. For example, the valency and semantics of the verb, as well as the animacy of the nouns, may affect the meaning expressed. Besides, the indeterminacy of a bare noun’s reference also plays a part in the meaning construction.

Keywords: resultative construction; ambiguity; cause; causer; theme; semantic orientation; event structure

摘要：

动结式“宝玉骑累了马”“张三追累了李四”都分别有不止一种解读。我们研究动结式的新视角,核心概念是“变元”。变元指承载结果变化的主体,是补语语义指向的对象。根据变元所处的位置,动结式可分为致因凸显和变元凸显两个大类,歧义句的解读可以以此为基础展开。动结式相同的形式框架可以产生不止一种概念架构,不同的解读是由结构和词汇共同实现的。结构制约进入框架的动词（形容词）、名词这些构成成分,整合它们之间的关系,确定所能表达的事件意义。而填充结构的词汇所具有的句法和语义属性则限制了结构可能表达的具体内容。例如动词的配价和意义、名词的有生非生特征等都会影响动结式意义的构建。此外,汉语光杆名词指称性质的不确定性也是造成歧义的原因之一。

关键词: 动结式, 歧义, 致因, 致元, 变元, 语义指向, 事件结构