A Corpus-based Approach To The Verb Patterns Of Chinese Can-wish Verbs

The can-wish verb is an important grammatical category in Mandarin to denote personal opinion or attitude.The large number of can-wish verbs and the semantic and pragmatic complexity cause lots of problems for the comprehensive and empirical study on the can-wish verbs,resulting into the insufficient research on can-wish verbs and problems for language learners.Pattern Grammar,based on the large-scale authentic language data,summarizes the typical patterns of and describes the use of a lexical item through categorizing the semantics of words that collocate with this lexical item.It has great potential in the fields of language description and Second Language Acquisition.It is found that the usage of linguistic features varies across registers.The present study,within the theoretical frameworks of Pattern Grammar and Register,investigated the distribution of can-wish verbs and their verb patterns across the spoken and the written register,based on a 2.2-million-word balanced corpus of modern Chinese language.The purpose is to enrich the ontology research of can-wish verbs and to provide reference for the teaching and learning of Chinese as a foreign language.44 can-wish verbs have been detected from the corpus.The study is restricted to23 Chinese can-wish verbs,based on their frequencies in the corpus.The 23 can-wish verbs are grouped into three categories,including permission/possibility/ability,obligation/necessity,and volition/prediction.The automatic semantic tagging system is applied to identify the semantic fields of the verbs following the can-wish verbs and to conclude the main verb patterns of can-wish verbs.The results show that the general distribution of can-wish verbs in the spoken register is higher than that in the written register,which is motivated by the interactive communicative purpose of the spoken discourse and the semantics of can-wish verbs.Seven typical verb patterns were identified,including V_cw+v _{general&abstract},V_cw+v_movement,V_cw+v_speech,V_cw+v _{psychological},V _cw+shi???,V_cw+v_{investigation} and V_cw+v_giving.The study also explored the preference for can-wish verbs in typical contexts.Combing the quantitative research methods and the qualitative analysis,this study presents the distribution and usage of can-wish verbs,expanding the ontology study of can-wish verbs and the application of Pattern Grammar.The study is innovative in the application of the automatic semantic tagging system to identify the semantics of verbs and to conclude verb patterns,leading to more objective and accurate research results.The study provides a new perspective for the research within Pattern Grammar.The distribution of can-wish verbs and verb patterns are beneficial for the acquisition of typical usage of can-wish verbs,the flexibility and accuracy in language output and the acquisition of lexicons.The preference of can-wish verbs in typical contexts will facilitate the learner to map the context with the most proper can-wish verbs.