Emotion in Grammar: Constructional and Functional Contrast of English and Mandarin

Posted: 10 Nov 2008

See all articles by Meichun Liu

Meichun Liu

National Chiao Tung University

Fangyin Su

National Chiao Tung University

Date Written: October 18, 2008

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary study of the grammatical asymmetry between Mandarin and English with regard to constructional patterns associated with emotion verbs. By exploring the differences in predicating 'emotion' in the two languages, the study aims to illustrate the correlation between form and function as it is realized in the way emotion is conceptualized and the way emotion is coded in grammar. As suggested in Wierzbicka (2001), 'Emotion words reflect certain cultural models and in turn pass on values, preoccupations and frames of reference of the society.' In English, emotional experiences are expressed mainly in three different patterns, anchoring in three different frames as proposed in FrameNet (http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/):

1) a. Frame 1 Experiencer_subject (Passive): I'm always interested to see how different they are. b. Frame 2: Experiencer_object (Active and transitive): This article would interest every reader. c. Frame 3: Stimulus_subject (Active and intransitive): That story sounded pretty interesting. By coding the human experiencer as the passive subject or the active object, the emotion verbs in English seem to inherently lexicalize the perspective of the Stimulus, instead of the Experiencer. In contrast, Mandarin shows a constructional distinction between an active and a causative pattern: when occurring in the subject position, the Experiencer always takes an active role as in (2a); when a Stimulus takes the subject position, a causative or paraphrastic construction is used with an overt causative marker rang/ling/shi 'make' as in (3b), allowing the Experiencer to be coded as the subject of the second clause:

2) a. Experiencer_subject (Active and dative) ta dui zheben shu hen gan/you xingqu.he to this book very feel/have interest (Lit.) 'He feels/has an interest in the book.' 'He is interested in the book.' b. Experiencer_object (Active and causative) zheben shu rang/ling/shi ta hen gan/you xingqu this book CAUSATIVE he very feel interest (Lit.) 'This book made him have interest.' 'This book interested him.'

In Sinica Corpus (http://www.sinica.edu.tw/SinicaCorpus/), over 80% of emotional events are coded with the active, Experiencer subject construction, which indicates a preference of conceptualizing an emotional state from the perspective of the Experiencer. Taking into consideration of both the constructional preference and distributional tendency, we propose that the emotion verbs in Mandarin may inherently lexicalize and predicate the viewpoint of the Experiencer, rather than that of the Stimulus, while English emotion verbs may lexicalize the perspective of the Stimulus. Additional evidence is found with Mandarin intransitive predication of emotion. The Experiencer can easily occur as the subject of intransitive predication as in (3a), but when the external Stimulus is used as the intransitive subject as in (3b), it can only occur with a semi-lexicalized causative predicate that incorporates the human Experiencer in the active form:

3) a. Experience_Subject (intrastive) ta hen xingfen (Lit.) He very excite 'He is excited.' b. Stimulus_subject (intransitive and causative) zheben shu hen rang/ling/shi-ren-xingfen (Lit.) This book is 'causing-people-excite' 'This book is exciting.'

The English contrast between the passive Experiencer_subject and active Experiencer_object constructions sets a different cognizing frame from the Mandarin inchoate Experiencer_subject vs. causative Experiencer_object constructions. A wide range of emotion verbs are further examined to verify how emotions are conceptualized and coded in grammar. The study ultimately argues that language and cognition go hand in hand as constructions are associated with culturally motivated meanings.

Keywords: emotion, grammar, Mandarin, cognitive linguistics

Suggested Citation

Liu, Meichun and Su, Fangyin, Emotion in Grammar: Constructional and Functional Contrast of English and Mandarin (October 18, 2008). 9th Conference on Conceptual Structure, Discourse, & Language (CSDL9), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1298655

Meichun Liu (Contact Author)

National Chiao Tung University ( email )

1001 University Road
East District
Hsinchu, 300
Taiwan

Fangyin Su

National Chiao Tung University ( email )

1001 University Road
Hsinchu, 300-10
Taiwan

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