Give And Take Semantic Category In Mandarin Chinese

The meaning of Give and Take,appearing frequently in daily communication,has attracted considerable attention of the earlier researchers.In the previous studies of Chinese grammar,researchers discussed the meaning in the framework of double object construction,ditransitive construction and “Gei” sentences based on the syntactic forms.Even though these results are helpful for people to know the meaning of Give and Take and its discourse forms,there are some problems left.What is the meaning of Give and Take? Are there any other discourse forms except the double object construction,ditransitive construction and “Gei” sentences? On the basis of the utterances,we can find that there are other forms expressing the meaning of Give and Take.To give a comprehensive description and explanation of the meaning of Give and Take in Mandarin Chinese,we start from the experiences of verbal communication and adopt the research path of “from meaning to form”.1.Construct Give and Take semantic category and explain its connotation,characteristics and structureGive and Take semantic category is a kind of cognitive schema,abstracted from Give and Take behaviour.The connotation is a process of possessive transferal from a subject to another.It has four characteristics: initiative,mobility,directivity and features of gain and loss.The structure of Give and Take semantic category is controlled by the elements of Give and Take events.The essential elements are subjects,behavior and object.The elective elements include mode,space,time,reasons and results.These elements have the characteristics of Give and Take semantic category.The subjects should have the ability to possess,the ability to Give and Take,the features of gain and loss.They can be biotic or abiotic things.The object has the characteristics of directivity and existentiality.They can be concrete things,abstract things or human beings.The behaviour has the characteristics of transfer,divided into give and take behavior,exchange behavior and sharing behavior.2.The linguistic form of Give and Take semantic categoryThe expression of Give and Take semantic category comprises two forms:linguistic form and discourse form.At the level of linguistic form,Give and Take verbs express Give and Take semantic category.Based on corpus,we found 243 Give and Take verbs.We analyzed the verbs from three perspectives: types,level of abstraction and syllabic form.According to the types of Give and Take semantic category,the verbs are classified three types: Give and Take,exchange and sharing.And each type can be subdivided into different subclasses.According to the degree of abstraction,the verbs are classified into simple type and complex type.The simple type has the high level abstraction,and it only encodes the behaviour.The complex type has the low level abstraction and includes other information of the event.According to the syllable,the verbs can be divided into monosyllabic words and disyllabic words.There are differences between the two types in the aspects of the frequency of use,metaphorical ability and language style.3.The discourse form of Give and Take semantic categoryThe implementation of Give and Take semantic category means that concretize the semantic category in communication.Based on the corpus,we have found out 44 possible sequence of linguistic symbols,which can be classified into four types by the initial elements: activator antecedent sequence,participant antecedent sequence,behavior antecedent sequence and object antecedent sequence.The expressions differ on the aspects of functions and features.Compared with taken event,given event has more verbs forms,elements sequences and practical discourse forms.4.The selective rules and conditions for discourse forms of Give and Take semantic categoryThe discussion of the possible linguistic sequences is a kind of static description.In communication,the speakers will choose from the discourse forms based on some rules and conditions.Based on the corpus,we conclude some conditions of selection:the demand for abstract degree,the features of subjects,the relation between two subjects,contextual conditions and so on.Except for the conditions,Some principles are established,including: activation principle,suitability principle,concision principle,information distribution principle,highlight principle,word combination principle.These conditions and principles influence the speakers' choices.