A Contrastive Study Of English Causatives And Chinese Causatives

Causation is pervasive in human language. Both English causatives and Chinese causatives express the concept that is to make another person or thing perform some action or keep some state. English causatives and Chinese causatives can not only express the same concept, but show some similar aspects on the language structure which are reflected on the different components linear structure in the surface and semantic expression in the deep structure. The thesis is aimed to compare the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features between two groups of English causatives and Chinese causatives, English marked causatives and Chinese BA constructions, English non-marked causatives and Chinese resultative constructions with the guidance of the general theory and constructive method of the contrastive linguistics and other linguistic theory concerned. The former researches on the contrastive study between English causatives and Chinese causatives still remain a stage for exploring into the corresponding relations between the English-Chinese sentence components and the contrastive study of causative verbs which have not touched on the analysis of pragmatic features and the reasons for the similarities and differences between the two structures. The thesis not only contributes to the study of the components corresponding and semantic contrastive study from core-verb structure and dynamic diagram, but analyzes pragmatic features and the reasons for the similarities and differences between the two groups of causatives. Through the research, it is found that the components in English causatives and in Chinese causatives have corresponding relations with different functions. Although each semantic element in English causatives and in Chinese causatives expresses the same semantic meaning, they undergo different semantic roles. And through the analysis of core-verb structures of English causatives and Chinese causatives, it is obvious that both English causatives and Chinese causatives have double core-verb structure at the deep layer. The two groups of causatives present similar features in the process of transforming from the deep layer to the surface layer. In English marked causatives and Chinese BA constructions causee has two functions in deep structure. The two cores of the Exerting Core Structure and the Influencing Core Structure combine in the process of transforming from the deep layer to the surface layer, and this applies to both English non-marked causatives and Chinese resultative constructions. Difference lies in that causative verb and caused result in surface structure in English non-marked causatives are expressed by causative verb, whereas in Chinese resultative constructions causative verb and caused result are expressed by two separated words which are combined as a pure verb. Similarities also exist in pragmatic features of English and Chinese causations. But due to different sentence pattern and language family English and Chinese causations belong to they also express their unique pragmatic features.To sum up, two typical English causatives and Chinese unique causatives with necessity are chosen to do the contrastive study. In this thesis, we have combined the conceptualization of causation with the interpretation of syntactic and semantic features and explained the pragmatic features of English causatives and Chinese causatives. It provides us a new perspective for future contrastive studies of English and Chinese causatives.