The relationships between processes and participants in Chinese: A cognitive approach

dc.contributor.advisorLamb, Sydney M.en_US
dc.creatorZhang, Jiannanen_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-06-03T23:54:28Zen_US
dc.date.available2009-06-03T23:54:28Zen_US
dc.date.issued1991en_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis investigates the knowledge which Chinese speakers must have that enables them to produce and comprehend Chinese sentences because grammatically Chinese provides little formal marking for syntactic functions such as subject, object, etc. and participant roles such as agent, patient, etc. The present work also presents a model for the representation of such knowledge. Using a cognitive approach which stresses the knowledge of users and the conceptual structures of the linguistic system, this study argues that Chinese speakers must know the conceptual relationships between processes and participants when processing Chinese sentences. Three types of knowledge are posited for the understanding of these relationships: knowledge about the world, linguistic knowledge, and pragmatic knowledge. A classification of Chinese conceptual processes is done according to the conceptual criterion PERIODICITY. Four basic types of conceptual processes are derived: State, Status, Action and Event, each of which corresponds to some syntactic properties and a different type of conceptual relationship. The categories of processes and participants have their hierarchical structures which are composed of two types of relationships: subordination and part-whole. Knowledge of these structures enable Chinese speakers to interpret the conceptual relationships. The difference between central participants and peripheral participants lies in the fact that the former are positionally marked, while the latter are usually related by prepositions. The distinction between participants and circumstantials is difficult to maintain since individual processes treat them differently. The participants presupposed by a processes are best regarded as prototypes to account for the metaphorical uses and the exclusion of the non-prototypical instances of a category. Participants are also grouped on the basis of the fixedness of their categories. The conceptual relationships also have their hierarchical structure. At the top level, there are P1, P2 and P3. At the bottom, the relationships vary with each individual process. At the intermediate level, some conceptual roles can be established to capture the similarities of relationships. The types of knowledge investigated in this thesis are presented as entries in a conceptual dictionary.en_US
dc.format.extent300 p.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.callnoThesis Ling. 1991 Zhangen_US
dc.identifier.citationZhang, Jiannan. "The relationships between processes and participants in Chinese: A cognitive approach." (1991) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/16501">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/16501</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/16501en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectLinguisticsen_US
dc.titleThe relationships between processes and participants in Chinese: A cognitive approachen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentLinguisticsen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineSocial Sciencesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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