Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
While the middle construction can be found in many languages, they do not syntacticallybehave in a uniform way across languages. Despite the large number of studies conducted onthe English middle construction, the academic community has not reached an agreement onthe definition of it. The elusive syntactic features of the English middle construction havedrawn an enormous number of discussions among scholars, resulting in multiform definitionsof it. However, a clear definition of the English middle construction can be delivered if weconsider it only from the perspective of semantics. The English middle construction, which isdifferent from the active or passive constructions, is a general statement about the activityexpressed in the sentence. It is a syntactic structure that takes the active form to describe thebasic attributes of the grammatical subject of the sentence.Many linguists have dedicated a lot of efforts to studying the derivation of the Englishmiddle construction, the syntactic and semantic features of it and the eligible verbs in it, butfew researchers have focused on studying the adverb modification of it. Since the adverbmodification is one of the most important features of the English middle construction, theauthor of this thesis intends to find: (1) what adverbs are eligible in the English middleconstruction in common language use; and (2) what is the cognitive motivation behind theEnglish middle construction.
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1.2 Objective and Significance of the Research
Since Keyser, S. J. and T. Roeper first put forward and conducted detailed study of theEnglish middle construction in 1984,[1]many scholars has paid a huge amount of attention tothis kind of construction in the European languages. Although some agreements have been achieved in the past 20 years, there are still a lot of disagreements among scholars in manyaspects. Lekakou addressed: “Language may differ as to which structure they employ in orderto express the middle interpretation, but what arguably remains constant across language isthe interpretation itself”. She even argues that there is no middle construction but only themiddle semantics in language use, so it makes little sense to talk about “middleconstruction”.[2]The English middle construction is a syntactical construction with morerestricted verbs and adverb modification. It possesses some distinct semantic and syntacticfeatures. Therefore, despite Lekakou’s argument about the existence of the construction, westill use the term “the middle construction” put forward by Keyer and Roeper to refer to thisset of structures. The middle construction is often noted as an active construction used in apassive-like way, in traditional English grammars. It has been discussed in depth by a widerange of linguistic scholars. Although much has been learned about this construction, manydetails of its nature remain undiscovered.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 The Definition of the English Middle Construction
The English middle constructions are used in non-eventive sentences to express theproperty of the grammatical subject. As combinations of both active and passive sentencestructures, the English middle constructions use active form to describe passive meaning. Thegrammatical subject is the object in these active sentences. However, while the Englishpassive construction is formed periphrastically by the auxiliary be (“was cut” in the sentence“This bread was cut” (passive construction), the verb in the English middle construction hasthe same form as that in the active construction (“cuts” in the sentence “This bread cutseasily” (English middle construction)). Active and passive constructions allow a great varietyof adverbs, as same as English middle constructions. As is indicated in the syntactic structure,adverb is the third feature of the English middle constructions. It is mandatory to engage theadverb or adverbial phrase in order to make an English middle construction grammatical.While only limited types of adverbs are permitted in English middle construction, in no casecan it be volitional. Fellbuam argues that only two types of adverbs are permitted in theEnglish middle construction, namely facility adverbs and event adverbs defined by Vendler[4].
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2.2 Features of the English Middle Construction
The research of the aspectual properties of the English middle constructions is anotherarea that scholars focus on. Vendler and Dowty divided verbs into four aspectual classes basedon their relation to time scale, including states, activities, accomplishments andachievements.[8] Both state verbs and activity verbs denote states of affairs or actions that do not have aninternal time scale. In other words, they are on-going in time and they do not have clearbeginnings or endings. On the contrast, accomplishment verbs and achievement verbs are telicand they express actions that have endpoints. States verbs differ from verbs of the otheraspectual classes in the fact that they don’t denote time scale. The beginning and ending of theaffairs have no apparently internal time scale. In the contrary, activity, accomplishment and achievement verbs express dynamic processes or actions that can be organized on a time scale.[9]The activity verb denotes an action that can apply to a variety of event stages on the timescale without the inclusion of an ending point, which is the case with sentence in 8 (b). Theaccomplishment verb can be easily recognized for its indication of an action that has clearlyhappening and ending points.
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Chapter 3 Description of Adverbs in the English Middle Construction .......23
3.1 The Syntactical Position of Adverbs in the English Middle Construction.......23
3.2 The Semantic Category of Adverbs in the English Middle Construction .......25
Chapter 4 Collocational Analyses of the English Middle Construction.......27
4.1 Collocation of the Middle Verbs with Their Adverbs.......27
4.2 Collocation of the Middle Verbs with Their Grammatical Subjects .......31
4.3 Collocation of the English Middle Construction Derived from Basic Level.......36
Chapter 5 Conclusion.......41
5.1 Major Findings .......41
5.2 Limitations.......42
5.3 Suggestions for Further Study.......42
Chapter 4 Collocational Analyses of the English Middle Construction
4.1 Collocation of the Middle Verbs with Their Adverbs
Goldberg suggests that it may be true that the syntactic expression of arguments is notrelated to specific manners. As a result, in order to explain the positioning of adverbs andadjuncts in a sentence, it is essential to refer to the nature of the manner designated by theverb. Therefore, it is necessary for us to associate the adverbs and adjuncts with the rich framesemantics of the verb. Iwata proposed that the English middle construction needs manner adverb is because ofadverb effect.[27]The manner adverb usually appears after the verb in the English middleconstruction but cannot appear before the verb, because the position of this adverb willinfluence the acceptability of the English middle construction and can change the way thisconstruction functions. In addition, the verbs themselves do not normally convey enoughinformation, which is another reason of requiring the present of adjuncts.[27]But Iwata didnot explain why these verbs cannot transmit enough information.
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Conclusion
This thesis presented the previous analysis of the English middle construction anddivided them into two major classes. But the available analysis of the English middleconstruction by traditional grammar, which is built on syntactical or lexical theory, has someproblems. It is an attempt to analyze the English middle construction adverbs from a cognitiveperspective and enable language learners to know more about the English middle constructionadverbs and the construction itself from new angles. Finally the conclusion can be drawn thatthe adverb is always constrained by the semantic characteristic of the collocated verb and thesemantic characteristic of the object that the subject refers to. The event and action describedin the English middle construction cannot be separated from each other. Moreover, the eventexpressed in the English middle construction can be regarded as a whole event that can beeasily triggered in human brain.
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Reference (omitted)