EXPRESSIONS OF CAUSED MOTION IN VIETNAMESE: A PERSPECTIVE FROM COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

Ly Ngoc Toan

University of Labor and Social Affairs

toanln@ldxh.edu.vn

3. Research Procedures

3.1 Data sources

This research data includes short stories written in Vietnamese, that are popular both in the present century and written by several writers based on distinct cultures from the 19^th century. These stories were coded into the capital letters and numbers from VS01 to VS12. These stories were read carefully to classify the sentences comprising spatial prepositions and cause verbs.

3.2 Collection of data

I applied these steps for the collection of data.

• Choosing the two dictionaries and 12 stories in Vietnamese from the last century.
• Reading through the dictionaries to gather all cause verbs (see Appendix 1).
• Using the data collection tools, namely Wordsmith and forxit reader to gather the sentences containing cause verbs.

3.3 Analysis of Data

These investigations provide data and the analysis of cognitive parameters to deal with the semantic and syntactic properties of EsCM in Vietnamese. The data were examined based on the two analytical frameworks: Goldberg’s constructional grammar and Talmy’s lexicalization patterns. The first pattern helps to examine the syntactic characteristics of EsCM via construction grammar with event structures and argument structures. The second pattern clarifies the semantic properties of EsCM through the semantic components conflation. These asspects are arranged in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Schema of analytical frameworks

3 Findings and discussion

3.1 Argument structures of EsCM in Vietnamese

Table 2 summarizes the argument structures of EsCM which focus on the number of arguments with cause verbs:

Table 2: EsCM Argument constructions in Vietnamese

a. V [Figure Path Ground]

There are twelve cause verbs in Vietnamese denoting this structure including cắm ‘to pitch’, cuộn ‘to roll’, hất ‘to toss’, thổi ‘to throw’, phóng ‘to launch’, hạ ‘to lower’, lao ‘to dart’, đổ ‘to dump’, nâng ‘to raise’, lăn ‘to roll’, and tung ‘to toss’. These verbs can combine with three arguments such as figure, path and ground. In general, the external force is the impact which causes the figure to move, but the agent of motion giving rise to that external force is not mentioned or implied. Thus, these verbs could be concluded to be active and intransitive verbs, and the figure is somewhat metaphorized, as in (10).

In this example, the path xuống ‘down’ has a role in constituting the configuration of the direction of motion, while the ground phà ‘ferry’ provides the location aspect of motion.

b. V [Agent Figure Path]

There are three arguments in this structure, namely agent, figure, and path. First, the agent may give rise to both internal and external forces causing the figure to move. Next, the path takes an important role in constituting the configuration of directions for motion, which includes the goal paths lên ‘up’and xuống ‘down’, and source paths, including vào ‘into’, ra ‘out’, tới ‘to’, and về ‘back’. There are fifty-seven cause verbs found in Vietnamese, such as chất ‘to pile’, chêm ‘to wedge’, chỉ ‘to point’, thổi ‘to blow’, and phun ‘to eject’. Normally, the ground can be implied or not mentioned as it is in (11).

c. V [Agent Figure Path Ground]

This structure provides the information on an external force from an agent that is transmitted to a figure; this force causes the figure to move toward the ground. Additionally, the forces in this expression can be both external like vác ‘to carry’, as in (12a) and internal forces like cho phép ‘to allow’, as in (12b). There are sixty- three cause verbs, found in the data denoting this structure, so it may be the most common type in Vietnamese.

3.2 EsCM event constructions in Vietnamese

Event structures are concerned with the lexical aspects denoted by the cause verbs. Table 3 summarizes event structures of EsCM in Vietnamese, including (i) event of states, (ii) event of activities, (iii) event of achievement, and (iv) event of accomplishments.

Table 3. Event structures of LEsCM in Vietnamese

a. Events of states

The verbs in this type consist of two lexical aspects: perfective and atelic. When the cause verbs are atelic, they do not always require endpoints. Thus, they can be either transitive or intransitive verbs, as in (13). When the cause verbs have perfective verbs, they are stative verbs which cannot express progressive situations. There are sixteen cause verbs found in the data, including chỉ đạo ‘to guide’, dẫn ‘to take’, giúp đỡ ‘to help’, and mời ‘to invite’. More particularly, these verbs can only give rise to internal forces, which are considered kinds of speech acts.

b. Events of activities

Those verbs used in these events have two lexical aspects, namely, atelic, and imperfective. First, when these verbs are atelic, they do not require endpoints to complete events, such as rung ‘to shake’, lắc ‘to wag’, and bắn ‘to shoot’. Next, when these cause verbs are imperfective, they function as dynamic verbs and can express progressive situations including hạ ‘to lower’, xoạy ‘to revolve’, and phun ‘to spray’. Additionally, the events denoted by these verbs are occasionally unbounded and durational. To express these events, speakers often focus on the whole process of motion from the starting points to the endpoints. With respect to duration, these events take an amount of time to complete.

However, these verbs denote such events as intransitive because the figure is directly concerned with motion. The agent giving rise to external forces causing the Figure to move is not mentioned or implied, as in (14), because the figure Sàn Gác ‘watch- tower’ cannot shake by itself. In other words, this event may be considered a conceptual metaphor of motion.

c. Events of achievements

This event has two lexical aspects: telic and imperfective. The first aspect is that an event always requires endpoints; therefore, these cause verbs are always transitive. In other words, these verbs denote the agent’s direct impact on the figure, which causes the figure to move. The second aspect is that these cause verbs are dynamic. More importantly, this event is bounded and durational. When it is a bounded event, it shows that speakers do not focus on the whole process of motion, but on only the endpoint of motion. For example, in (15), the speaker does not focus on the whole trip of carrying a dead body xác của em. Instead, the speaker only places his focus on the endpoint of motion, that is, rừng ‘forest’. Finally, this event denotes duration, which means this motion must last a certain length of time.

This event is the most popular among events, which has forty-two verbs including chất ‘to pile’, chêm ‘to wedge’, cuốn ‘to roll’, mang ‘to bring’, khuân ‘to take’, vác ‘to carry’, and nhồi nhét ‘to cram’.

d. Events of accomplishments

This event is denoted in the verbs, which have two lexical aspects: telic and perfective. The cause verbs with the telic aspect depict an event which has endpoints, so they must be transitive verbs. The cause verbs with the second aspect are stative verbs, which cannot denote progressive situations or events. This event consists of twenty-five cause verbs found in the data, such as duỗi ‘to stretch’, hất ‘to toss’, ném ‘to throw’, tung ‘to toss’, and phóng ‘to launch’.

Take the verb ném as an example, in (16), the speaker only places his focus on the endpoint of motion ném, that is, the emergency of the figure người ‘people’ outside the ground phòng ‘room’, and this is due to the bounded event. Moreover, the motion of the verb ném takes a period of time for the figure to move from inside to outside.

3.3 EsMC Lexicalization patterns in Vietnamese

This pattern is concerned with the lexicalization of EsMC in Vietnamese, which is associated with the conflation of the semantic components. The lexicalization patterns of EsMC in Vietnamese are divided into three types, including (i) lexicalization patterns of the cause verbs, (ii) lexicalization patterns of causes, and (iii) lexicalization patterns of paths. This division is based on the semantic components lexicalized into cause verbs and paths.

3.3.1 Cause verbs Lexicalization patterns in Vietnamese

Table 4 summarizes the lexicalization designs of cause verbs, which involve the conflation of semantic components, namely motion, path, cause, and manner into cause verbs in Vietnamese. This section addresses the question of what the semantic properties of EsMC in terms of lexicalization patterns in Vietnamese are. In this way, I analyzed the lexicalization patterns based on the conflation of semantic elements into verbs. The result shows that there are four types of EsMC in Vietnamese, of which the lexical expression with four semantic elements is the most common.

Table 4: Cause verbs Lexicalization patterns in Vietnamese 

a. Lexicalization designs: Motion + Cause

This expression consists of two semantic components, namely motion and cause. In this expression, the agent generating a cause to make the figure move is not mentioned. The figure bọt ‘foam’, as in (17), is non-agentive, which may probably be viewed as the agent generating the cause (i.e., what makes the spume pounce) and the figure. There are only three Vietnamese cause verbs in the data: cuộn ‘to roll’, thổi ‘to blow/to throw’, and tung ‘to toss’.

b. Lexicalization patterns: Motion + Cause + Path

The three semantic motions cause and path components are conflated into cause verbs which denotes the figure’s motion, and the agent making the figure move with a certain path. In (18), the verb phóng ‘to launch’ denotes the motion of the figure pháo ‘firework’, and the agent máy bay ‘jet’, which makes the figure move and gives rise to the path of the figure, which is normally a lower position of the agent to a higher position. Particularly, the figure normally moves according to an arc-like path. There are eleven of these verbs in the data, which denote these semantic components, including cắm ‘to pitch’, phóng ‘to launch’, hạ ‘to lower’, and tách ‘to separate’.

c. Lexicalization patterns: Motion + Cause + Manner

This expression consists of three semantic components: motion, cause, and manner. It denotes that the agent gives rise to the cause making the figure move. In addition, this expression type also clarifies the figure’s styles of motion, such as vác ‘to carry’ (a person carries a heavy thing on his/her shoulder and moves with difficulty), khiêng ‘to carry’ (two people use their hands to carry a heavy thing and move with difficulty), or búng ‘to flick’ (a person use his/her top of the finger to push a small and light thing out). In (19), the agent is Moan that causes the figure hòm đạn ‘boxes of bullets’ to move. In particular, the cause verb vác also denotes that the figure is placed on Moan’s shoulder, and it simultaneously moves with Moan. There are eighteen cause verbs found in the data denoting these semantic components.

d. Lexicalization patterns: Motion + Cause + Manner + Path

This expression with fifty-five cause verbs represents four semantic components: motion, cause, manner, and path. Take (20) as an example. The agent of Chúng ‘they’ causes the movement of the figure bom ‘bomb’. The figure moves from a higher position down to a lower position towards the ground, các của rừng ‘the edges of the forest’. Specifically, the verb ném ‘to bomb’ also indicates that the figure is fired from the plane by military technology.

3.3.2. Lexicalization designs of causes in Vietnamese

In this pattern, the semantic components together with types of causes are lexicalized into the cause verbs. In general, the causes are separated into two types: direct and indirect. The first type frequently has direct contact between the agent and the figure, so these cause verbs must be transitive ones. In the second type, the agent does not have direct contact with the figure, so they are regarded as volitional causes or speech acts. These causes give rise to different patterns of cause verbs. Table 5 summarizes the lexicalization patterns of cause in

Vietnamese. This table is summarized according to three categories: types of cause, verbs denoting that cause, and the contribution of those verbs.

Table 5: Lexicalization patterns of causes in Vietnamese

a.Lexicalization patterns: X di CAUSES Y to MOVE Z

This expression indicates that the external agents have direct impacts on the figure and cause the figure to move. This is the most common expression in the data, consisting of sixty-six cause verbs, such as chất ‘to cram’, hất ‘to fling’, thổi ‘to blow’, and phóng ‘to launch’. The external causes may derive from various sources, such as water together with cuốn ‘to sweep’, wind together with thổi ‘to blow’, the weight of the figure with đánh rơi ‘to drop’ or the direct contact of the external agents. Examples of these verbs include ném ‘to throw’, đẩy ‘to push’, kéo ‘to pull’, rót ‘to pull’, and bắn ‘to shoot’.

b.Lexicalization patterns: X indi CAUSES Y to MOVE Z

In this expression, the agents do not have direct contact with the figure, but it still may move. This is because the cause may involve perlocutionary acts which are generated by a certain utterance in each context. Take the verb mời ‘to invite’ as an example. The agent tôi ‘I’ only gives an utterance by an invitation or internal motivation, which does not give rise to direct contact on the Figure đồng chí ‘comrade’, but it still moves with the verb quá bộ ‘to walk’.

There are three cause verbs of this type found in the data: yêu cầu ‘to ask’, ra lệnh ‘to order’, and mời ‘to invite’. In fact, these causes are mostly contingent on social classes, ages, genders, or cultures. For the cause verbs yêu câu and ra lệnh are only used by those who have the higher positions in the society or are older. Meanwhile, the cause verb mời is mainly used by those have the lower positions in the society or are younger.

c. Lexicalization patterns: X ENABLES Y to MOVE Z

The verbs for this motion event include eight cause verbs, such as cho phép ‘to allow’, cấm ‘to prohibit’, vẫy tay ‘to wave’, and thả ‘to release’. These verbs generally denote an inductive cause involving both the active removal of barriers and the failure to impose a potential barrier. In particular, these verbs express two kinds of directions of motion: motion away from the ground vẫy tay ‘to wave’ or toward the ground đuổi ‘to dismiss’.

d. Lexicalization patterns: X PREVENTS Y from MOVING Z

There are four cause verbs that denote this event in Vietnamese, including chặn ‘to stop’, giữ ‘to keep’, khóa ‘to lock, and vây ‘to circle’. Example 24 shows that the figure hắn ‘he’ cannot move toward the ground because of the barrier Em ‘I’.

e. Lexicalization patterns: X HELPS Y to MOVE Z

The verbs giving rise to this cause denote volitional causation generated by direct or indirect contacts on the figure. In the data, there are eight verbs of Vietnamese cause verbs denoting this cause, such as thuyết phục ‘to persuade’, chỉ ra ‘to point’, chỉ đạo ‘to guide’, and giúp đỡ ‘to help’. The agent Đơn vị ‘unit’ and the figure Nhân dân ‘the people’ in this expression must be agentive, as in (25).

3.3.3 Lexicalization patterns of Paths in Vietnamese

Table 6 summarizes the lexicalization patterns of the paths in Vietnamese, which can be grouped into five categories: (i) lexicalization patterns, (ii) paths, (iii) semantic components of each path, (iv) cause verbs denoting each type of paths, and (v) the distribution of the cause verbs. This section is analyzed based on the semantic components in terms of directions. As the results show, the cause verbs in Vietnamese denote three kinds of paths, namely goal, source, and route, which refer to a transition from one spatial domain to a complementary spatial domain. First, the goal paths indicate the precise end-point location of the path, and the source paths represent the initial location of the path. Finally, the route paths are not the end-point paths, because they refer to the middle location of the path.

Table 6: Lexicalization patterns of paths in Vietnamese

a.Lexicalization patterns: Motion+ GoalPath

This expression denotes that after there is a contact between the agent and the figure, the agent transfers a force to the figure, which causes the figure to move with the goal paths. These paths denote that the figure transfers from the agent to the ground, which are also termed as the goal-oriented paths such as tới ‘to’, vào ‘into’, lên ‘up’, and xuống ‘down’. The paths tới and vào are co-final paths, which suggests the endpoint as a termination with several properties such as translation, orientation, and non-delimitation, as in (26). In contrast, the paths lên and xuống are terminative paths, which have all the properties of the cofinal paths, but they also denote that the figure’s motion normally stops accurately at the ground. This expression is the most common in the data, consisting of fifty-eight cause verbs.

b. Lexicalization patterns: Motion+ SourcePath

This expression consists of three source paths, including ra khỏi ‘out of’, ra ngoài ‘out’, and từ ‘from’, which  are generally like goal paths that refer to extreme points. First, ra khỏi is a source path which provides us information about the direction of motion. The figure ban ‘you’ starts close to the landmark (khu vực giặc), and proceeds in a manner such that the distance between bạn and khu vực giăc increases, as in (27a). Next, the path từ is a source and transitional path because it contains a transition from one spatial domain to a contemporary spatial domain. In addition, the path từ is in a sense the opposite of the path ra khỏi. In (27b), dưới chân một cây gạo ‘under the root of the bombax tree’ is not the endpoint of the movement of the cụm khói ‘smoke’, but its starting point. Finally, the path ra ngoài is a source path, which is associated with a transition, no delimitation and orientation, as in (27c). There are sixteen cause verbs found in the data representing this path.

c.Lexicalization patterns: Motion+ RoutePath

The route paths in Vietnamese are lexicalized by three prepositions, including dọc theo ‘along’, qua ‘through’, and quanh ‘around’, which are not concerned with orientation and direction but clarify the extreme points. First, qua and dọc theo are the transitive and prolative paths, respectively. The path qua denotes the figure that undertakes two transitions: through one place to outside, and then moving into the ground and out at another location of the ground, as in (28a). Next, the path dọc theo posits that the figure does not undergo a transition, but it is interpreted as an extended entity, as in (28b). Finally, the path quanh is the recessive path, which is not associated with orientation, direction, or extreme points. Also, it depicts that the whole-circular or semi-circular detour, as shown in example (28c). There are fourteen cause verbs belonging to this type.

3.3.4.Explicit motion lexicalization patterns in Vietnamese

Besides the case of implicit motion-based lexicalization in English, explicit motion lexicalization in Vietnamese has several different aspects. The first distinction lies in surface elements lexicalizing semantic components, which are proposed by Talmy (1985, 2000b). In these, the cause making the figure to move is expressed by cause verbs while the manner and path of the movement of the figure are expressed by the path verbs which accompanies the cause verbs. It is obvious that the cause verbs in EsCM in Vietnamese are transitive, and the construction is structurally designated as follows: 

This expression may be termed as the serial verb construction since two verbs are associated with denoting motion, as in (29), and it may contain two motion events. The cause verb đẩy ‘to push’ indicates that the agent had a directional contact on the figure, while the path verb denotes the motion and direction.

Semantically, an ECM normally consists of the agent argument directly causing the figure to move along a path. The basic semantics of this expression can be designated using the directional phrase as follows: X CAUSES Y TO MOVE Z.

It is mentioned above that an ECM generally contains two verbs (one cause verb and one path verb), but they denote different semantic components. This expression encompasses two events, namely the cause event, as in (30a) and motion event, as in (30b). 

Thus, the event structures of EsCM in Vietnamese can be designated as follows:

3.4. Constraints on semantic components

This section provides insights into constraints of the arguments of the causer, which are assigned by their semantic roles as the agents in EsCM. In addition, constraints of direct causation are elaborated based on the lexical causatives.

a.The causer argument of agentive

First, it is essential to take insights into the semantic properties based on the causer arguments that function as agents. Cook (1989) posits that an agent is the instigator of the action, the principal cause of the event as opposed to the immediate cause but excluding natural force. The agentive role is not restricted to animate nouns, as in (31a-b), and inanimate agents are also permitted, as in (31c).

 Thus, the conceptual structure of these expressions could be schematized as follows:

The agentive causer argument in this expression can be applied to the verbs, which generate both types of forces, including indirect (internal) ‘to allow’ ‘to ask’, ‘to assist’, ‘to urge’ and direct (external) ‘to draw’, ‘to drift’, ném ‘to throw’, and cuộn ‘to roll’.

b. The causer argument of non-agentive

A non-agentive causer argument is the immediate cause of an event that is opposed to an agent using the principal cause. If the agent and the causer argument of a non-agentive event simultaneously take place, then the agent will be the instigator of the event and the argument of the causer will be the impact, which has direct contact with the ground, as in (3.2).

Syntactically, the verbs in this expression are intransitive and denote active events, which do not express the generation of forces anymore, but they seem to generate real actions. Thus, this expression can be designated as follows:

As a result, it can be said that with the causer argument being the agentive event which generates forces causing the figure to move, the verbs are transitive. However, when the causer argument is the non-agentive (the figure), these verbs are intransitive. In this case, the causer argument of this expression can be implied because they are not focal participants. In this phenomenon, the object in the transitive structure, as in (3.3a) becomes the subject in the intransitive structure, as in (3.3b).

3.5 Constraints on direct causation

In essence, EsCM in Vietnamese are double-clause expressions because they may be isolated into two independent clauses. That is, an EsCM consists of a cause verb, such as đẩy ‘to push’, xô, tông ‘to crush’, mời ‘to invite’, yêu cầu ‘to require’, kéo ‘to pull’, lôi ‘to draw’, and a path verb, such as vào, ra, xuống, lên, tới, and qua. In (34), the cause verb kéo has a role in generating forces, while the motion verb ngồi xuống denotes  aspects of motion events.

4. Summary

These current investigations are associated with the structures and lexicalization patterns of EsM in Vietnamese. To begin with, the structures of EsCM is explored in terms of argument structures and event structures. The argument structures are concerned with a wide range of arguments combining with the cause verbs to constitute different EsCM in Vietnamese, which are analyzed based on Pereck’s (2015) theory. The event structures are also informed by Rothstein’s (2004) classification of lexical meanings of the cause verbs. According to Rothstein, verbal predicates may be divided into four different classes: states, activities, accomplishments, and achievements. In addition, when delving into event structures of EsCM, two main types of forces (internal and external) are simultaneously decomposed based on the lexical meanings of verbs.

Secondly, the lexicalization patterns of semantic components, causes, and paths are analyzed in detail in terms of their semantic properties. Talmy (1985) posits that lexicalization is the way semantic elements are mapped onto surface elements and vice versa. First, the way the semantic components are determined by Talmy, including motion, cause, path, and manner, are mapped on the surface elements to constitute different EsCM in Vietnamese. Next, following the theory of the construction grammar scheme to argue by Goldberg (1995), the semantic elements of different types of causes which are lexicalized into their surface elements are radically decomposed.

References