Chapter 4: LEXICAL EXPRESSIONS OF MANNER MOTION
4.3.1. Construction grammar of LEsMM in Vietnamese…
The construction grammar deals with form-meaning correspondences referring to the rules of syntactic combination, which allow the units of language such as words or
phrases to combine together to generate bigger units of languages such as clauses or sentences. In doing so, this content will be analyzed on the basis of the theory of argument structures. In addition, the form-meaning correspondences refer to the ways of how the information of motion is formally packaged within a sentence, which will be elucidated in event structures.
4.3.1.1. Argument structures of LEsMM in Vietnamese
Table 4.7 summarises three types of argument structures in Vietnamese with regard to the number of external arguments combining the manner verbs. This table is grouped into three categories as follows: (i) the number of arguments; (ii) types of arguments; and (ii) frequency of the manner verbs.
Table 4.7. Argument structures of LEsMM in Vietnamese
Number of Args Argument structures Verbs %
1 a. V[Figure]
2 b. V [Figure Path]
c.V [Figure Figure]
d.V [Figure Place]
3 e. V[Figure Path Ground]
f. V [Figure Path Place]
65 29
68 30.3
1 0.4
23 10.2
62 27.6
22 9.8
a. V [Figure]
This expression consists of one argument functioning as the Figure. So, the manner verbs in this expression must be intransitive verbs (e.g., bay, bay bổng, biến, bò, chảy, chạy, hụp, etc.) There are 65 manner verbs (29%) found in the data, which have this argument structure. The Figure in this structure is occasionally an agentive subject which itself gives rise to motion as in (4.33a). In some cases, the Figure is a nonagentive subject, then LEMM is not a motion event because it is partly metaphorized or personalized, then the Figure is not the agent giving rise to motion and the verb thổi normally goes with the agentive subject as in (4.33b).
(4.33) a. Tôi bơi qua sông. (VS04-217)
I swam cross the river.
b. Gió thổi hiu hiu và thỉnh thoảng có gió giật. (VS12-235) The wind blew softly sometimes strongly.
b. V [Figure Path]
There are 68 manner verbs (30, 3 %) such as e.g., bạnh, bật, bệt, bò, bước, chảy, chạy, etc found in the data, which have this argument structure. These verbs are comebined with two arguments which are the Figure and Path, so these verbs are always intransitive manner verbs. This structure denotes the Figure’s motion and direction in which motion is encoded by the manner verbs and the direction by the Path. More particularly, the Path in Vietnamese may exist in both the surface forms such as verbs (ra) in (4.34a) and prepositions (quanh) in (4.34b).
(4.34) a. Hai người nhảy ra. (VS06-142)
The two people jumped out.
b. Những dáng núi xanh mờ suốt ngày đầy sương mù vây quanh. (VS11-184) The green mountain was covered in the smog.
Last but not least, this argument structure of motion is conceptualized as the perspectival structure in which the satellites (e.g., lên, xuống, tới, lại, vào, ra, etc) play an important role in encoding the perspective direction. For example, the path-like element “ra” determine the direction (from the inside of the container to the outside).
(4.35) Khẩu súng từ trong bụng văng ra. (VN03-601)
The gun came out from his shirt.
c. V [Figure Figure]
According to the data, there is one Vietnamese manner verb (chạy trước or vượt qua), making up 0,4 %. This expression consists of two arguments of Figures. These two arguments are carrying out the same motion, so it means to compare the speed of two Figures. The first Figure is sometimes faster than the second Figure as in (4.36) in which the first Figure chị vợ is moving faster and overruns the second Figure tay chồng.
However, sometimes the second Figure runs after the first one but later it runs faster and
overrun the first Figure. This structure may be conceptualized as the attentional system, which involves the explicit mention of space and time of a motion event.
(4.36) Chị vợ áo váy tơi tả chạy trước tay chồng chỉ vài bước.(VS04- 232) His wife in her ragged dress ran to her husband.
d. V [Figure Place]
This structure consists of two arguments, which are Figure and Place. Thus, the manner verbs are the intransitive manner verbs (e.g., bạnh, bay, bật, bệt, bò, bơi, bước, bò, bung, chành, chảy, etc.). There are 23 manner verbs found in the data, making up 10, 2%. This structure denotes that the Figure’s motion is taking place in comparison with the Ground in which the opened-class element of manner verbs (bò) encodes Motion and Manner while the closed-class element of prepositions (cạnh) encodes the configuration of motion event or the Place of the Figure in projection with the Ground such as trong, ngoài, trên, dưới, cạnh, and gần, etc.
Therefore, this structure is conceptualized as the configurational system of location.
(4.37) Hoa bò cạnh Nhẫn thì thào. (VS05- 253)
Hoa crawed next to Nhan and whispered.
e. V [Figure Path Ground]
This structure consists of three arguments such as the Figure, Path and Ground, in which the Figure is moving in a certain direction toward the Ground. There are 62 manner verbs, making up 27, 6% (e.g., bay, bò, bơi, xuống, vượt, tuột and tông, etc). More specially, the Path of motion events is mapped onto independent surface forms which are the path verbs (e.g., ra, vào, lên, xuống, qua, lại, tới và lui,) or prepositions (e.g., quanh or dọc theo). As in (4.34), the Figure những giọt nước mắt denotes the moving object; the verb rơi denotes Manner and Motion, and mu ban tay denotes the Ground and the Satellite xuống denotes the direction of motion. Thus, the argument structure is conceptualized as the configurational system of direction in which the Path plays an important role in encoding the configuration of motion event and its direction as well.
(4.38) Nhưng sao giọt nước mắt rơi xuống mu bàn tay tôi.(VS08- 391) Why some
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f. V [Figure Path Place]
This last structure includes three arguments such as Figure, Path and Place while Ground may be implied or mentioned earlier. While Figure encodes the moving object which gives rise to motion, the Path encodes the direction. The Place encodes the configuration of motion which delimits the boundary of motion. Examine the illustrative example (4.39), the Figure Tiền is moving according to the Path ra phía in comparison to the landmark ngoài cửa.
(4.39) Tiền sợ hãi vội vàng chạy ra phía ngoài cửa. (VS11-108) Tien felt scared and quickly ran out of the house.
4.3.1.2. Event structures of LEsMM in Vietnamese
Table 4.8 summarizes the types of events of LEsMM in Vietnamese, which is grouped into four categories: (i) event structures; (ii) types of event; (iii) lexical aspects; and (iv) frequency of verbs.
Table 4.8. Event structures of LEsMM in Vietnamese
Event structures Types of events Lexical aspects Verbs %
a. States Bounded Atelic 3 1.33
Punctual Perfective
b. Activities Bounded / Unbounded Atelic 147 65.6
Durational Imperfective
c. Achievements Bounded/ Unbounded Telic/ Atelic 36 16.0 Punctual Imperfective
d. Accomplishments Bounded Telic 38 16.4
Durational Pefective
Total 224 100
a. Event of States
This event denotes that the manner motion does not have an endpoint (Atelic) and cannot express the progression of motion (Perfect). In addition, this event has characteristics of the bounded event in which only the endpoint of the event is focused on and punctual event which does not need the length of time to complete. However, this event is not common in Vietnamese, which consists of 3 manner verbs (1.33%) found in the data (e.g., biến, chuồn, cút). For example, the manner verb chuồn in (4.40) denotes event of states because this verb cannot express the progression of the
event (e.g, đang chuồn), mostly encodes the final boundary of event and does not take a length of time to complete.
(4.40) Tau với mi cũng phải tìm cách mà chuồn ra khỏi thành thôi.(VN01-1250) You and I had to seek the ways to escape from the city.
b. Event of Activities
This event is the most common in Vietnamese, which has 147 manner verbs, making up 65.6% (see appendix 7). These manner verbs simultaneously denote two lexical aspects such as atelic and imperfective. First, the atelic depicts that the motion verbs in LEsMM don’t consist of an endpoint, thus these verbs are always intransitive (e.g., đi bộ or chạy). Second, the imperfect is concerned with the dynamic situation in which the manner verbs are involved in the change of the Figure’s position and express a motion event taking place at a point of time as in (4.41). Moreover, this event is either bounded or unbounded events in which speakers focus on both the boundary and progression of motion events. Last but not least, the event of activities is also a durational event which always takes a length of time to finish the action of “chạy” from one side of the forest to another side of the forest (sang một bên bìa rừng bên cạnh).
(4.41) Cận ôm súng chạy tạt sang một bìa rừng bên cạnh.(VS07-106) Can brought the gun and ran to the side of next forest.
c. Event of Achievements
There are 36 verbs (16.0%) (e.g., bung, chành, cập bến, chìa, duỗi, dập, etc) in the event of achievements that denote two lexical aspects such as telic and imperfective properties.
Regarding the telic property, LEsMM always have endpoints or goals (e.g., cuốn, dập dờn or chồm). Next, the imperfective property denotes dynamic situations, location change and progression of the event. Additionally, the event of achievements may be bounded or unbounded event, that is, when expressing this event, speakers may focus on either the boundary or the process of the event. Finally, the event of achievement is a punctual event which does not need a length of time to complete as in (4.42).
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He jumped up and embraced you tightly.
d. Event of Accomplishments
In this event, the manner verbs denote the lexical aspects, which are telic and perfective.
The telic property depicts that LEsMM always have endpoints or goals while the manner verbs with the perfective property do not express the progression of the event (e.g, rớt, lao, búng and vụt) because this event often takes place in a short time. In addition, this event is concerned with bounded and durational properties which refer to speakers’ boundary limitation and the duration of the event as in (4.43). This event includes 38 manner verbs (e.g, bật, bệt, chạy mất, chúi, đạp, giậm), occupying 16.9%.
(4.43) Lam Dạ Ảnh đạp lên chân ga chạy thẳng đến bờ biển.(VN01-288) Lam Da Anh pedaled and drove to the shore.