Lectal Variation of the Two Chinese Causative Auxiliaries

Lectal Variation of the Two Chinese Causative Auxiliaries

本文旨在從語料庫的觀點研究中文兩個使役助動詞使'cause'和讓'let'之間的差異。我們對從兩個語料庫中提取的中文語料進行邏輯迴歸分析，認為此兩個助動詞之間的差異可視為Verhagen and Kemmer（1997）所提出的直接／間接使役區分。回歸模型得到的結果表明，直接／間接使役的理論為動詞的特徵和詞義提供了合理的解釋。我們指出，動詞使與「直接使役」相關，因為它通常使用於涉及無生命參與者的使役事件中，在這種情況下，起因論旨角色必然且直接地導致受使役者的結果狀態。另一方面，讓應該被歸類為「間接使役」，因為它通常用於涉及有生命參與者的場景，並且除了使動者之外，亦有其他一些驅動來源也導致使役事件的發生。

This paper aims to investigate the variation between two Chinese causative auxiliaries shi '使' and rang '讓' from a corpus-based perspective. We conduct a logistic regression analysis to the Chinese data extracted from two corpora and propose a direct/ indirect distinction (Verhagen and Kemmer 1997) between the two auxiliary verbs. The results retrieved by the regression model show that the theory of direct/ indirect causation provides a reasonable account for the characteristics and lexical meanings of the verbs. We indicate that the verb shi is correlated with ''direct causation'' because it is typically used when inanimate participants are involved in the causing event, in which the force initiated by the cause inevitably and directly leads to the resulted stage of the causee. On the other hand, the verb rang should be classified as ''indirect causation'' because it is typically used in scenarios where animate participants are both involved, and some extra force besides the causer also plays a role in the effected event.