Title

The Qualification and Affirmativity of Verb in Chinese

Author

Yu-Zhi Shi 

Genre

Article  

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Abstract

    This paper studies the affirmative verbs in Chinese which cannot be directly negated by MEI (BU). According to the general meaning of the negative participles, this paper deduces a semantic requirement of the verbs which can appear in negative constructions. The affirmativtiy of the verbs results from qualification of their meaning. There are two rules of the affirmation and negation of verb: I. the verbs whose meanings indicate a undeterminate quantity can freely appear in both affirmative and negative constructions. Also, this paper establishes a formal criterion to judge the usage of verbs: all the verbs that have a particular limit to the numeral-classifier compound at their object positions are to indicate a certain quantity and cannot be directly negated by MEI (BU); on the contrary, all that don’t have the limit are neutral and can appear in both affirmative and negative constructions. In addition, the syntax of the quantitative verbs has been discussed.