City University of Hong Kong CLASS CLASS
Making Sense of Grammar
0 like 0 dislike
328 views
asked Aug 4, 2021 in Questions about Chinese Grammar by Ariel (34,480 points) | 328 views

1 Answer

0 like 0 dislike
Achievement verbs describe a punctual action that brings about a change of state. Examples are: ‘dào’ (arrive), ‘yíng’ (win), ‘sǐ’ (die), ‘lái’ (come), ‘duàn’ (break) and ‘suì’ (break to pieces), etc.

1a. 杯子打碎了。

Bēizi dǎ suì le.

(The glass was broken.)

1b. 老师领来了一个新同学。

Lǎoshī lǐng lái le yī gè xīn tóngxué .

(The teacher brought a new student here.)

In these two RVCs ‘dǎ suì’ (break) and ‘lǐng lái’ (lead-come = bring), the resultative complements ‘suì’ (broken) and ‘lái’ (come) are Achievements, denoting a change of state.

[1] Loar, J. K. (2011). Chinese syntactic grammar: functional and conceptual principles. New York: Peter Lang.
answered Aug 4, 2021 by Ariel (34,480 points)

1,613 questions

1,882 answers

207 comments

15,645 users

1,613 questions
1,882 answers
207 comments
15,645 users