The passive in English a perspective from cognitive semantics (with reference to Vietnamese)

The passive in English: a perspective from cognitive semantics (with reference to Vietnamese) Nguyễn Tất Thắng Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ Luận án TS. Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: Assoc. Assoc.Dr. Trần Hữu Mạnh Năm bảo vệ: 2010 Abstract: The thesis provides a critical analysis of major schools of linguistics, e.g. traditional grammar, transformational-generative grammar, and functional grammar, in dealing with the passive-active relationship. Once the drawbacks of these schools of linguistics have been detected, the thesis presents another way of analyzing the passive structures under the light of cognitive semantics. An exploration on cognitive linguistics in general and cognitive semantics in particular will be displayed, thus providing a more interesting and convincing way of looking at the passive voice. Major tenets of cognitive linguistics and features of cognitive semantics will be thoroughly presented, making it possible to come to a conclusion for the betterment of the new school of linguistics. Through the analysis of passive structures, the researcher attempts to present another view of linguistic exploration, i.e. to interpret the use of language from the understanding of our cognition, thus presenting a number of notions in cognitive linguistics, and in cognitive semantics in particular. The study discusses the possibility of the existence of passive structures in Vietnamese. A prototype view will be applied in analyzing the structures, hopefully providing a way to settle the debate of arguing about the existence of the so-called passive structures in Vietnamese. Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Động từ; Dạng bị động; Ngữ nghĩa học tri nhận; iv Content: CONTENTS PART ONE – INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale 01 2. Aims of the study 04 3. Scope of the study 05 4. Research questions 06 5. Methodology 07 6. Contribution of the study 09 PART TWO - DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Passive voice 1.1. Introduction 12 1.2. Traditional grammar and passive voice 12 1.3. Passive from the perspective of transformational- generative grammar 14 1.4. Passive voice from the perspective of functional grammar ……… … 22 1.5. What needs to be discussed? 26 1.6. Passivity in Vietnamese 30 1.7. Summary 31 Chapter II: Cognitive Semantics 2.1. Introduction 32 2.2. Definitions of terms 32 2.2.1. Cognitive Science 33 2.2.2. Cognitive Linguistics 33 2.2.3. Cognitive semantics 34 2.2.4. Conceptualization 34 2.2.5. Embodiment 35 2.2.6. Experience 35 2.2.7. Construal 36 2.2.8. Frame (semantics) 36 2.2.9. Perspectives 37 2.3. Cognition and linguistics 37 2.4. Cognitive Linguistics 38 2.5. Major principles of cognitive linguistics 40 2.5.1. Embodiment in cognitive linguistics 40 2.5.2. Grammar and meaning 41 2.5.3. Language and its symbolic function 43 2.6. Cognitive semantics 44 2.6.1. Conceptual structure is embodied 45 2.6.2. Semantic structure is conceptual structure 45 2.6.3. The meaning of individual concepts – prototype 46 2.6.4. Meaning representation is encyclopedic 46 v 2.6.5. Meaning construction is conceptualization 47 2.7. Four major notions of cognitive semantics in language analysis 48 2.7.1. Perspective 48 2.7.1.1. Introduction 48 2.7.1.2. Theoretical framework on perspective 50 2.7.2. Figure and Ground 60 2.7.2.1. Theoretical framework - Gestalt theory 60 2.7.2.2. Figure and Ground in Language 63 2.7.2.3. Figure and Ground in single sentences 65 2.7.2.4. Figure and Ground in complex sentences 68 2.7.3. Meanings and Encyclopedic Knowledge 69 2.7.3.1. Fillmore (1982) with frame semantics 69 2.7.3.2. Langacker (1987) with Profile and Base 72 2.7.3.3. Cognitive domains 74 2.7.3.4 Embodiment and encyclopedic knowledge 77 2.7.4. Prototype theory 79 2.7.4.1. Introduction 79 2.7.4.2. Categorization 80 2.7.4.3. Major points of prototype theory 81 2.7.4.4. Why apply prototype theory? 83 2.8. Summary 86 Chapter III: Applying Cognitive Semantics to Analyzing Passive Voice 3.1. Active and Passive Sentences: Two Different Perspectives 89 3.1.1. Be – Passives 89 3.1.2. Get – Passives 94 3.1.3. Passives with introductory It 96 3.2. Applying Figure and Ground in analyzing passive sentences 97 3.2.1. Passive with the presence of Agent and Patient 97 3.2.2. Get Passive 100 3.2.3. Passive in complex sentences 101 3.2.4. Passive and embedding of Figure and Ground relations 103 3.2.5. Figure – Ground relation and its reversal 104 3.2.5.1. The possible, syntactically 104 3.2.5.2 The impossible, even syntactically 106 3.3. Implementing encyclopedic knowledge into explaining the acceptability of active – passive alternation 109 3.3.1. The well-formedness and its acceptability 111 3.3.2 More appropriate in active than in passive 113 3.3.3. More appropriate in passive than in active 117 3.4. Summary 120 vi Chapter IV: Toward a prototype for passive structures in Vietnamese 4.1. Introduction 122 4.2. A review on literature of passivity in Vietnamese 123 4.3. The term ‘passive’ and how passive voice is defined 128 4.3.1. The term passive 128 4.3.2. Transitivity and passive 128 4.3.3. The struggle for a common formula of passive structures . 130 4.3.4. The existence of passive structures in Vietnamese 132 4.4 Structures that may cause controversy 141 4.5. Summary 144 Chapter V: Integrating major notions of cognitive semantics in analyzing passivity 5.1. Why broader view? 146 5.2. Why closer look? 146 5.3. The key notions having been discussed 147 5.3.1. Perspectives 147 5.3.2. Figure and Ground 148 5.3.3. Encyclopedic knowledge and experience 148 5.3.4. Prototype 149 5.4. Applying the notions in discussing the structures 150 5.5. Summary 163 PART THREE - CONCLUSION 1. Recapitulation 164 2. Implications 166 2.1. For English language learning and teaching 166 2.2. For language research 168 3. What has not been dealt with? 169 ARTICLES RELATED TO THIS STUDY 171 BIBLIOGRAPHY 172 1 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Passive sentences are typical structures in Indo-European languages. A lot of research about the passive phenomenon has been done, providing a wide variety of features of passive structures cross-linguistically (e.g. Keenan, 1976; Freidin, 1975; Permutter, 1978; Zaenen, 1983; Langacker, 1990; Tomlin, 1995.) Each school of linguistics has displayed its own ways of analyzing the passive structures, thus posing trouble for learners and for novice researchers in settling a standpoint in grasping and understanding the fundamental semantic and syntactic structure of this phenomenon in languages. The following example illustrates this point. Sentences (a) and (b) below describe a state in which a male person carries a box from one place to another: (a) He moved the box into the room. (b) The box was moved into the room (by him.) Both sentences, (a) and (b), refer to one event with the same actor. Syntactically, sentence (a) differs from sentence (b) in that the subject/doer in (b) is optional or left out entirely, or optionally expressed obliquely via a by-phrase, and that the object in (a) serves as the subject/patient in (b.) Traditional grammar treats passive voice as the change of the morphology in verbs, with the inversion of the subject and object of the sentences. Then, (b) can be seen as a new version of (a) with a change in the verb ‘move’ and an exchange of location in the subject and object of the original sentence (a). It has been argued in transformational grammar that passive sentences derive from a D-structure form of so-called active sentences. It is the NP-MOVEMENT (c.f. Radford, 1988:420) that brings to life passive sentences. Generative grammar 2 offers an analysis of the change from active to passive structures, attributing the shift through a ‘multilevel syntagmatic structure’ in which the ‘deep structure (or initial stratum) is basically active in organization’ (Langacker, 1990.) Passive structures are also argued to belong to a class of expression known as idioms chunks (c.f. Radford, 1988:422.) And NPs in passive sentences do not have the same syntactic freedom of distribution as other NPs. Another argument is formulated in relation to thematic relations. It is claimed that active Objects (i.e. Objects of active sentences) play the same thematic role as the corresponding passive Subjects. Another view on passive voice comes from Functionalism. Functional grammar divides passive structure into three subcategories, depending on the functions that the speakers would like to convey. It is called the pragmatic function of the sentence. For example, when the Agent of the action is unknown to the writers or speakers, passive structures are preferred. Or when the focus of the sentence is the action and the effects of the action, not the doer of the action, passive constructions are applied (c.f. Halliday, 1994; Lock, 1996; Downing and Locke, 1992; Givon, 1995.) Semantically, a functional grammarian analyzes constituents in passive grammar based on the functions of the participants in the sentence, namely actor / agent, goal, beneficiary, recipient, etc. Previously mentioned views of linguistics on passive voice have left drawbacks to language users and language teachers. For instance, traditional grammar states that passive voice can be formed if the verb is a transitive one, i.e. the verb having a direct object. However, not all transitive verbs can be conjured up in passive structures. Or as stated by generative grammar, passive structures derive from their active counterparts. In reality, no speaker describes an event by forming an active sentence in his/her mind then ‘transforms’ it into passives. This will be further discussed later in the study. 3 It is not until recently that cognitive semantics (or more generally cognitive linguistics) has postulated a different look at language structures. The focus in the study of language shifts from external to internal, mentalist aspects of the human language. Researchers in cognitive science argue that the linguistic structure is a direct reflex of cognition in the sense that a particular linguistic expression is associated with particular ways of conceptualizing a given situation (Lee, 2001: 1). They believe that there exists an interrelationship between thought and meaning. It is from this point of view that passive sentences are seen from a different angle. The root of the differences mentioned above originates from the theory of meaning. Generative grammar claims that the structure of linguistic expressions is determined by a formal rule system that is largely independent of meaning. Or rather, syntax is independent from meaning while cognitive linguistics claims that language is not an autonomous cognitive faculty (c.f. Croft, 2004.) It is therefore absolutely necessary for researchers as well as language learners to take a standpoint in analyzing languages. In particular, a thorough understanding and fully developed arguments for the explanation of the structure are crucial. A note should be taken here regarding the title of the dissertation. Since the word ‘perspective’ in cognitive semantics embraces more than one meaning and has sub- notions hanging with it, this word used in the title may result in misunderstanding. However, the word ‘perspective’ in the title is used in purpose. The meaning of the word ‘perspective’ the author wishes to express is that of ‘view point,’ ‘standpoint,’ ‘angle,’ or the like. With the title as it is, the author wishes to analyze the passive structures from the cognitive semantics point of view. More than that, the author wishes to bring a metaphor of the word ‘perspective’ to the title, hoping to create a profound and thoughtful meaning of the title of the dissertation. 4 2. Aims of the study The study aims to provide a critical analysis of three major theoretical approaches of explaining language phenomena. More particularly, different approaches of linguistics, e.g. traditional grammar, transformational-generative grammar, on explaining passive voice will be critically explored, thus indicating their strengths and weaknesses, which will help determine more appropriate ways of looking at this language phenomenon. The study aims at presenting another way of analyzing language structures, especially passive structures, based on cognitive linguistics, particularly cognitive semantics, i.e. based on four major notions: Perspectives, Figure – Ground relationship, Encyclopedic knowledge, and Prototype. An exploration of cognitive linguistics in general and cognitive semantics in particular will be displayed, thus providing a more interesting and convincing way of looking at the passive voice. Major tenets of cognitive linguistics and features of cognitive semantics will be thoroughly presented, making it possible to come to a conclusion for the betterment of the new school of linguistics. The study will also discuss the possibility of the existence of passive structures in Vietnamese. A prototype view will be applied in analyzing the structures, hopefully contributing another view to the debate over the existence of the so-called passive structures in Vietnamese. Through the analysis of passive structures, the researcher attempts to present another view of linguistic exploration, interpreting the use of language from the understanding of our cognition through a number of notions in cognitive linguistics, and in cognitive semantics in particular, thus illustrating evidence for the possibility of integrating notions in cognitive semantics in the task of language analysis. 5 3. Scope of the study As stated previously, one of the aims of this research is to present our understandings of cognitive linguistics and cognitive semantics in particular; therefore, the focus is on displaying major notions of this school of linguistics. In particular, the study confines itself to the notions of perspectives, figure and ground, encyclopedic knowledge, and prototype since these four are fundamental in cognitive linguistics. Regarding passive voice and structures to be analyzed, the study restricts itself to structures with passive form in the main verb, i.e. the passive form of the utterance is in the head verb, leaving behind structures consisting of passive forms in other parts of the sentence, e.g. in the to infinitive, such as need to be repaired. Also, most sentences used as illustrations come from everyday language, thus setting aside extensive complicated sentences found in academic texts or elsewhere. It should be noted here that it is not possible to apply one notion of cognitive linguistics, such as Figure and Ground, in analyzing all kinds of passive structures. This means that for each sentence, we have different ways of approaching and applying proper notions for explaining. This is due to the fact that language phenomena are various, and as a result, the way to deal with them varies accordingly. Consequently, it is impossible to apply one idea to the explanation of all features of language. However, the study is not going to categorize or classify which kinds of sentences are applicable for which types of notions since it is not the goal of the study. The last chapter in Part II is an attempt of assembling as many notions as possible in analyzing the phenomenon of passive structures, thus providing a broader view on this feature of language - passive structures. In short, the study will focus on the facets that are applicable in analyzing passive structures, not an overall presentation of the theory of cognitive semantics. 6 4. Research questions Passive voice in English, or in Indo-European languages in general, has been widely discussed from different points of view. Different papers present different discussions on this language structure. This study attempts to seek answers to the issues that have not been adequately discussed by many researchers from different schools of linguistics. The questions that the study will investigate will be as follows: a. How is the passive voice seen from the point of view of cognitive semantics? Different major notions of cognitive semantics are applied to discuss the phenomenon, i.e. passive voice, resulting in 4 subquestions as follows: Subquestion 1: Are passive sentences surface structures of their so-called active counterparts? How are passive and active sentences seen from the notion of ‘perspective’ in cognitive semantics? Subquestion 2: How can the notion of Figure and Ground be applied to explain passive structures? Subquestion 3: How can the theory of Frame Semantics and Encyclopedic Semantics be used to examine the acceptability of passive sentences? Subquestion 4: How can the theory of prototype be used to formulate a passive prototype in Vietnamese? b. Is it possible to integrate the four notions in analyzing passive voice, providing a thorough and profound interpretation of the phenomenon? [...]... cognitive linguistics, and cognitive semantics in particular, thus providing evidence for the claim that cognitive linguistics is a convincing and appropriate way to explain language The study confirms the fact that it is feasible to apply notions in cognitive semantics to analyzing and explaining problems in syntax, thus fostering the idea that syntax and semantics are two sides of a coin, and should not... of linguistics, and the drawback of these methods in analyzing language Chapter 2 displays how language structures are seen from the perspective of cognitive semantics, providing a foundation for a particular phenomenon, i.e passive structures, to be analyzed Chapters 3, 4, and 5 discuss the passive phenomenon based on the notions of cognitive semantics presented in the previous chapters The last part... presents a thorough review of the literature about passive voice, in English and Vietnamese More importantly, a theoretical framework based on major notions of cognitive semantics is established, providing foundation for the discussion and analysis of the passive voice from the light of the cognitive semantics In part II, there are five chapters Chapter 1 reviews major arguments and analysis of passive. .. passive voice from different schools of linguistics other than cognitive linguistics Chapter 2 presents the basic ideas about cognitive linguistics and especially cognitive semantics Chapter 3, 4, and 5 are for applying individual notion of cognitive semantics to analyzing and discussing passive and active structures Regarding the necessity and vitality of the analysis of passive voice, Chapter 1 presents... Seminar, University of California: Santa Barbara 47 Grundy, P and Jiang, Y (2001) Ideological Ground and Relevant Interpretation in a Cognitive Semantics In Dirven, Hawkins and Sandikcioglu (Eds.) Language and Ideology: Theoretical Cognitive Approaches John Benjamins Publishing 48 Halliday, M A K (1994.) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd Edition.) ISBN: 0 340 57491 7 Published by Edward Arnold,... major notions of cognitive semantics Each of these four notions is presented with details and illustrations, with which active and passive structures are analyzed and explained After that, an integration of these four notions is founded, from which passive structures are analyzed from the overall examination of cognitive semantics 7 This dissertation is divided into three parts The first one is, as... situations in daily life Sentences used as examples are cited from either reliable sources or real life situations All the examples from real life situations, though not recorded and not put in the appendices, were sent to English speaking people to test whether these sentences have a high acceptability in the English language More significantly, two native English speakers have been asked to do the. .. Longman 108 Van Dijk, T .A (1977.) 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Applying Cognitive Linguistics to Pedagogical Grammar: The Case of Over In M Achard and S Niemeier Cognitive Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and Foreign Language Teaching, pp 257-280 Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter 107 Ungerer, F & Schmid, H-J (1996) An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics London and . appropriate way to explain language. The study confirms the fact that it is feasible to apply notions in cognitive semantics to analyzing and explaining problems in syntax, thus fostering the idea. due to the fact that language phenomena are various, and as a result, the way to deal with them varies accordingly. Consequently, it is impossible to apply one idea to the explanation of all. have left drawbacks to language users and language teachers. For instance, traditional grammar states that passive voice can be formed if the verb is a transitive one, i.e. the verb having a