| This semantic study of Taiwanese verbs, using Case Grammar Theory (Cook 1989, 1998), relies on a language universal approach to semantics within the sentence level. This semantic valence theory describes Taiwanese verbs according to the number and kind of arguments they require. Arguments are labeled as Agent, Experiencer, Benefactive, Object, or Locative. The verbs are classified according to semantic domain (basic, experiential, benefactive, or locative) and verb type (state, process, or action). Using Case Grammar Applied (Cook 1998) as a Knowledge Representation (KR) model, conceptual graphs (Sowa 2000) supplement each case grammar description of Taiwanese verbs for the development of an extensive verb ontology. Since the late 1970's, there has been an unparalleled surge in the descriptive study of the structure of Taiwanese (Cheng 1988). There has, however, been no linguistic research advocating the analysis of Taiwanese sentences from a semantic perspective using the Case Grammar Theory (Cook 1989, 1998) approach. Problems with earlier descriptive research include the neglect of sentence semantics, thereby creating linguistic research dependent on contextual and syntactic clues. Findings from the present study of Taiwanese verbs illustrate the semantic priority of the verb, independent of syntax because of its intrinisic semantic nature. |
