Semantic Interpretation Of Middle Construction’s Selective Restrictions

The construction of “NP(non-agent)+VP+qilai+AP” can be classified into threegroups according to the semantic orientation of AP. When AP is semanticallyorientated to VP or implied agent, it is attributed to a certain property of NP, andmeanwhile the construction can be transformed into another construction with VPfunctioning as subject(eg.“这本书读起来很轻松”can be transformed into“读这本书很轻松”；“这活干起来很累”can be transformed into“干这活很累”). This papertakes these two groups as subject(due to their similarities, these two goups can beidentified as one category: middle construction), aiming to explore its constructionalmeaning and analyze the selectional restrictions of the three key components: NP, VP, AP.This construction ascribes a property reading to NP which would normally bemapped to the object position. The property helps bring about the occurrence of theevent denoted by the verb in a specific way as denoted by the adjective. NP alone isresponsible for result of the event so it has an effect role reading. Meanwhile theconstruction also conveys responsibility, modality, genericity and non-eventiveness.The core meaning of this construction is about the prototype function of NP. NP’sprototype function is part of its semantic schema and is what we rely on to identify thecategory denoted by NP. And its prototype function can also explain what it exits for.If a middle construction describes the prototype function of an NP, the constructioncould be interpreted freely without referring to any contexts and its verb is notsubjected to any restrictions. Otherwise the interpretation has to rely on specificcontext. This can explain why some middle constructions are banned in topics whichfail to provide sufficient contextual information. According to Goldberg, themetaphorical extension of a construction is always based on the construction’s coremeaning. Middle construction is no exception. If the NP is involved in a metaphor,middles requires the co-occurrence of both the target and the source, and its verb isaccepted only if it depicts the prototype function of the source. The constraint of NP in middle construction is about its agentivity. All the nounphrases, regardless of their theta roles, are ascribed some agentivity as long as theyappear before verbs. So is the NP in middles since it takes the first position in theconstruction to show its effect role. But the agentivity of the NP in middles isminimized due to the de-subjectivity implied in the constructional meaning of middle.The less agentive the argument is, the more likely it appears as NP in middles. In mostcases, patient will function as NP in middles since its agentivity is the lowest amongall the theta roles. Minimization of agentivity also leads to the following results:Nouns denoting human being seldom appear in middles; Generic arguments are morelikely to appear in middles than specified ones; Pronouns denoting first person andsecond person are rejected by middles.The restriction of VP is rather a complex problem. In some cases, thegrammaticality of middles depends on its context. The primary condition of middleverb is volitionalness which ensures the action denoted by middle verbs is what theagent is willing to do. The verbs denoting prototype functions of NP (as is shown bythe core meaning of middles) can enter the construction without any restrictions. Suchmiddles are unmarked. As for verbs denoting non-prototype functions, they can entermiddles only if their semantics entails resultant interpretation. Two groups of verbmeet this condition: those with an object whose theta role is result; those that can befollowed by progressive and meanwhile can enter sentence ba without obligatorycompliments.AP in middles is restricted in its volitionalness and boundedness. For the facilitymiddles, all the adjectives denoting facility can enter the construction. For qualitymiddles, only non-volitional adjectives are permitted.Another condition of AP is only bounded adjective phrases are accepted. Themain duty of predicate is to describe state and level, which is exactly the function ofbounded adjectives. To achieve consistency of boundedness, NP must be bounded too.In some cases, the boundedness of NP has to be interpreted by referring to the contextwhich helps build a new cognitive domain. It has a bounded interpretation too if it isan anaphora. Boundedness constraints can be violated in the following contexts:contrastive context, subjunctive context, and when middles are adhered to a larger construction.The contrastive study of Chinese and English middles shows the two are differentmainly syntactically rather than semantically. Implied agent is sytactically suppressedin English middles while is relatively free in the Chinese counterpart. As asubject-prominent language, English requires subject to take the first place in middles,leaving no positions for agents if they fail to take the position of subject. WhereasChinese is a topic-prominent language, in which topic has been assigned to a specificposition and agent can take another position as subject. For Chines middles,“qilai” isobligatory and it is supposed to take the position next to the verb, leaving no extraposition for resultant compliment, while English middle verbs are not subjected to thisrestriction. Due to the different syntactic systems of the two languages, the core ofmiddle predicate is VP in English while AP in Chinese. English syntax is verb-focused.For Chinese, however, verbs and adjectives share equal grammatical functions andtheir functions even overlap since both of them can be predicates.Syntactical difference is not the reason to deny its middle identity of“NP(non-agent)+VP+qilai+AP”construction. Middles across languages do not behavesyntactially in a uniform way. What all the languages share in common is semanticsrather than syntax since the grammatical categories we are using now can’t apply toall the languages. So a valid contrastive study of two languages should be based onsemantics.The middles in both English and Chinese have the same semantical interpretation.Both of them convey responsibility, effectiveness and modality. Their selectiverestrictions overlap in a large degree. Therefore “NP(non-agent)+VP+qilai+AP”should be identified as the a member of the “middle construction category” inChinese.