City University of Hong Kong CLASS CLASS
Making Sense of Grammar
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asked Apr 30, 2021 in Questions about Chinese Grammar by Ariel (34,480 points) | 198 views

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The semantic role of manner adverbials is to describe the manner in which the action named by the verb is executed. In chronological order, the state portrayed by a manner adverbial starts before or, at least, simultaneously with the action. The state co-exists with the action during its process. Therefore, according to the conceptual structure of the Chinese, it is ordered prior to the verb it modifies.

[1] Loar, J. K. (2011). Chinese syntactic grammar: functional and conceptual principles. New York: Peter Lang.
answered Apr 30, 2021 by Ariel (34,480 points)

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