A Study on the Mechanism and the Hierarchy of Semantic Role Arrangement of Sentence-Initial Multiple Arguments Based on Word Order Acceptability Data
Jungku Park, Byeongkwu Kang, Minjun Park, Sukyong Yu · Korea Journal of Chinese Linguistics · 2023
This paper extracted a large number of sentences with multiple arguments at the sentence beginning position from various genres of modern Chinese corpus data through coding programs as well as artificial methods. After changing the order of arguments of sentence-initial position in the extracted sentences, word order acceptability data was constructed through verification by native speakers. For the large amount of data constructed in this way, the quantity and ratio of combinations of semantic-roles that the multiple arguments at sentence-initial position play were statistically analyzed. Based on the analysis so far, it has been possible to induce the constraints on the multi-argument arrangement and establish the hierarchy of the semantic role for topicalization.Among obligatory arguments that appear at the beginning of a sentence, the arguments used as the object precede the arguments used as the subject. Among optional arguments, Time, Locative, and Cause arguments precede other arguments. Source and Goal arguments have something in common: they tend to precede other arguments when they express time. However, when they represent locative meaning, they shows different characteristics. The locative Source follows the obligatory arguments, and the locative Goal precedes the obligatory arguments. Instrument, Manner and Material are closest to the predicate, and Beneficiary and Recipient precede obligatory arguments. The word order of multiple arguments at sentence-initial position is influenced by iconicity, semantic relationship with the verb, and whether or not they are obligatory arguments.