restrictive and non-restrictive resultative complements

[Ewcia]

Hello, 

 

I'm currently writing the B.A. thesis on word-formation processes in contemporary Mandarin and I'd like to ask a question related to the linguistics of Mandarin Chinese. 

 

In my references I’m focusing mainly on Chaofen Sun’s  “Chinese: A Linguistic Introdution” and when writing about compounds I came across the notions of restrictive and non-restrictive resultative complements. However, I cannot find the definitions of those terms or maybe I just don’t know where to look for them apart from Sun’s book.

 The author suggests that 节省 and  解决 are the compounds with restrictive resultative complement, and that they cannot be separated by the infixal potential marker 得 therefore for instance *节得省and *解得决 are incorrect.

In the case of non-restrictive resultative complement in compounds 看见 and  打破, he argues that the infixal potential marker得can separate the two syllables, so 打得破 and看得见 are both possible. 

Basically that’s all the author tells us about the two terms, no definition at all. And that’s the problem because I really need one.

When trying to find what the author is talking about I ended up finding only the terms armed with the mentioned examples and references to the Chaofen Sun’s book but without any explanation what a restrictive resultative complement or a non-restrictive resultative complement actually is . That is why I’d like to ask for help. If anyone came across those terms somewhere else but “Chinese: A Linguistic Introdution” please give me a hint. Also if you have at least some idea what the notions may stand for, share with me, please, because I’m having serious problems with defining them.

 

Thank you in advance for any kind of advice, hint, suggestion or even your own idea. I really appreciate any kind of help.

 

 

P.S. I'm sorry if I posted this post twice but I think the previous attempt was not successful... 

 

[skylee]

This seems relevant -> http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Result_complement

"Result complements form verbal compounds that behave exactly the same as normal verbs. The compound is formed by a verb plus another verb or an adjective"

"In each of the examples above, a compound verb has been created from a verb plus another verb or adjective. These verb-complement compounds behave like other verbs in terms of taking objects, being modified by adverbs and being negated."

PS - also see the Yale link at the bottom of that webpage.

[Altair]

I believe I read that book some years ago, but do not remember those terms.  For an amateur and non-specialist, I have read a fair number of books and papers on various aspects of Chinese grammar and linguistics, but do not recall seeing these terms in other reading either.

 

From the context, I presume that "compounds with restrictive resultative complements" is the same as "inseparable compounds" and that "compounds with "non-restrictive resultative complements" refers to "separable compounds."

 

I recall from my reading that there is a fair amount of discussion among linguists about what parts of speech can serve as complements and in what circumstances, but I would quite surprised if there is any notion of compounds that matches the use of "restrictive" vs. "non-restrictive" as commonly used to apply to such things as relative clauses.

 

I don't know what your background is in Mandarin, but you should know that although there is a general difference between separable and inseparable verbal compounds, there are many verbs that seem in the process of switching categories and so have limited separability.  For instance 睡觉 (which is probably a verb-noun compound) is mostly inseparable, but does allow a limited number of words that can come between them, such as (一、午、懒）.  The word 睡 can also be used on its own.

There are also a few expressions that come only in separable form, such as 了不起.

 

If you are primarily addressing verb-verb compounds, then I think the two categories of separable and inseparable are more clearly distinct.  The only ways I can recall to distinguish them would be to see (1) whether using the infixes 得 or 不 were possible, as proposed, or (2) whether both parts could be used independently in the same sentence with similar meanings.

 

I hope this helps.

[Ewcia]

skylee, thank you for your link, I browsed it and found some useful suff so really, thank you very much. 

 

Altair, I think your possible interpretation of restrictive and non-restrictive resultative complement as separable and inseparable makes sense and honestly, that is the best I’ve got so far. But I guess if that is what the author of the mentioned by me book had in mind when calling the complements like that then he could have just used easier terms such as the one applied by you – separable and inseparable

.

My background in Mandarin linguistics is not as good as yours.  I read some basic articles and had a semester of introduction to linguistics concerning mainly Chinese but it’s not enough. However, I’m aware of the difference between 睡觉 and 了不起 in terms of them being separable or not. Maybe let’s assume I have the most basic knowledge about it. I decided to write a thesis on it so that I would find out more about Chinese morphology and maybe find some interesting books or articles. It is a kind of motivation to do research, get some new knowledge, broaden my horizons and of course get my degree all at the same time ;).

 

Frankly speaking, I guess I will have to look into some other possible classification of complements in Mandarin. Maybe my teacher will have mercy and will give me some hints where to look for a better classification.

 

Nevertheless, thank you both. If you ever came across those terms I asked about, give me a hint. I’d really appreciate it. ;) 加油！