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SVC in Chinese

Revision as of 16:41, 7 April 2011 by Miaomiao Zhang (Talk | contribs)

In the Chinese recording of Simon’s cat, I found three types of SVC:

Type 1 V1+V2 (dao)

苍蝇飞到茶杯上。
“The fly settles on a cup.”
cāngying
cāngying
flySBJAGT
Ncomm
fēi
fēi
flyPRED
V1
dào
dào
reachENDPNT
V2
chábēi
chábēi
teacupOBJGOAL
Ncomm
shàng
shàng
surfcaeOBJGOAL
N
小猫又扑到台灯上。
“The little cat jumps onto the lamp, too.”
xiǎo
xiǎo
little
ADJ
māo
māo
catSBJAGT
Ncomm
yòu
yòu
again
ADVm
rushPRED
V1
dào
dào
reachENDPNT
V2
táidēng
táidēng
lampOBJGOAL
Ncomm
shàng
shàng
surfaceOBJGOAL
N


再把苍蝇放到主人的胸口。
“Then (it) puts the fly on the chest of its master.”
zài
zài
then
ADVm
 
PRT
cāngying
cāngying
flyOBJBEN
Ncomm
fàng
fàng
putACTVPRED
V1
dào
dào
reachENDPNT
V2
zhǔrén
zhǔrén
master
Ncomm
de
de
POSS
PRT
xiōngkǒu
xiōngkǒu
chestOBJGOAL
Ncomm


Type 2 V1+V2(+V3)

然后突然有一只苍蝇飞过来。
“Then, suddenly, there flies a fly.”
ránhòu
ránhòu
then
ADVtemp
tūrán
tūrán
suddenly
ADVm
yǒu
yǒu
there.is
V
one
ART
zhī
zhī
CL
CLFnum
cāngying
cāngying
flySBJTH
Ncomm
fēi
fēi
flyPRED
V1
guò
guò
acrossPATH
V2
lái
lái
come
V3
然后小猫就扑上去
“Then the little cat jumps onto it.”
ránhòu
ránhòu
then
ADVtemp
xiǎo
xiǎo
little
ADJ
māo
māo
catSBJ
Ncomm
jiù
jiù
 
PRT
jumpPRED
V1
shàng
shàng
onPATH
PREP
goDIR
V2
小猫就扑过去。
“Then the little cat rushes to it.”
xiǎo
xiǎo
little
ADJ
māo
māo
catSBJ
Ncomm
jiù
jiù
then
ADVm
jumpPRED
V1
guò
guò
acrossPATH
V2
qu
qu
go
V3
(它)就大胆地走过来,
“(it) then comes here boldly.”
(tā)
(tā)
(it)SBJTH
PN
jiù
jiù
then
ADVm
dàdǎn
dàdǎn
boldly
ADJ
de
de
 
PRT
zǒu
zǒu
walkPRED
V1
guò
guò
passDIR
V2
lái
lái
comeDIR
V3


In type 1 the second verb is dao “arrive” indicating the direction of the action expressed by the first verb fei “fly”, tiao “jump”, pu “jump”, cang “hide”, fang “put” or tun “swallow”, and some linguists called the second verb as co-verb, which means the verb has the function of the preposition. But I think the second verb dao can be considered as V2 which shares the same subject with V1. And type 2 is similar to type I because the following two verbs also have the function of preposition. The difference is that the second verb of the serial verbs usually indicates the path of the first verb, and the third verb indicates the direction. For instance, in examples 2, 16 and 23, V1 is the main action of the whole event, V2 indicates the path of the main action and V3 expresses the final direction of V1. By the way, the three verbs also share the same subject. If the clause pu shang qu is divided into two parts: pu shang “jump on” and shang qu “up go”, the shang in the first part is a locative preposition “on”, while the shang in the second part is directional preposition “up”. We can also assume that the clause shang qu functions as a compound verb indicating the direction of the first verb pu. In this case, the example 4 contains only two serial verbs.

Type 3 Resultive SVC (V1+V2)

但茶杯被它撞倒了。
“But the tee cup is knocked down”
dàn
dàn
but
CONJ
chábēi
chábēi
teecupSBJ
Ncomm
bèi
bèi
PASS
PRT
it
PN
zhuàng
zhuàng
hitPASSPRED
V1
dǎo
dǎo
fell.down
V2
le
le
 
PRT
它把窗帘抓破了
“It (the cat) has scratched the curtain”
itSBJ
PN
CAUS
PRT
chuānglián
chuānglián
curtainOBJ
Ncomm
zhuā
zhuā
scratchACTVPRED
V1
be.broken
V2
le
le
PFV
PRT


主人这时候被呛醒了。
“At this moment, the master wakes up because of being stocked.”
zhǔrén
zhǔrén
masterSBJ
Ncomm
zhè
zhè
this
DET
shíhou
shíhou
moment
N
bèi
bèi
PASS
PRT
qiàng
qiàng
stock
V1
xǐng
xǐng
wake.up
V2
le
le
 
PRT


In type 3, there are two adjacent predicates in a single clause, in which the first predicate is the reason of the second one, and the second one is the result of the first one. They indicate two different events, namely, the first one expresses the action “hit”, and the second one describes the result “fell down”. Yet they have different subjects.