English Middle Construction and Chinese Verbs

Liu Fang

【Abstract】Middle Construction （MC）is a special language sentence structure.It exists in English，West Germanic languages and Indo European languages，etc.It has a unique form and meanings.In recent years，Chinese verbal MC research is a hot topic and many Chinese scholars believe that there is a totally same structure form of MC in Chinese as well.However，that is not true.

【Key Words】MC； English； Chinese； Verbs

This article is one of the stage research results on the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of the Education Department of Heilongjiang Province （12532088）.

1.Introduction

Verbs in each language hold a pivotal status in the language world.Their function is extraordinary and no language can leave verbs and exist independently without it.Middle Construction （MC）is a special verbal sentence structure form.It has always been a hot issue for linguists and scholars.At present，some Chinese scholars believe that there is a completely same structure form in Chinese as in English.To test this viewpoint，this paper carries out a careful comparison and study on English and Chinese languages on MC structure.

2.A Brief Introduction on English MC

In English，there are grammatical forms of active and passive differentiation.They are passive sentences，middle construction sentences and passive verb sentences.To active sentences and passive verb sentences，learners are not unfamiliar.But for MC sentences，knowledge learning is very limited.MC refers to a special form of a verb in ancient Greek，used to represent a kind of voice between ranged from “active” and “passive”.It expresses a generalized reflexive meaning.It is shown in verbs of action and subject itself，or for the interests of the subject itself.Scholars and experts continuously learn from advanced theories of linguistics，and form a good situation of the theory and method of multi - direction and depth exploration for it.English MC involves complex syntax，semantics and vocabularies，the studies of European language is the most profound.

3.Chinese Middle Constructions Issues Analysis

MCs special character and complexity have been a key point of researches in foreign and Chinese linguistics studies.As mentioned above，this construction form widely exists in English，French，German and many other languages.Its syntactic form is quite different from active and passive sentences.MC sentences thoroughly tend to emphasize and focus on the status and degree of the Patient of the event as the core issue instead of the agentive subject that perform the action（s）according to the speakers true semantic intention when he expresses[1].Studies show that Chinese is a kind of verby language and the semantic functions are very powerful and strong as a language.The issues，therefore，that there is a “real” Chinese middle constructions form in Chinese as well in English language has always been a viewpoint of discussion on MC cross-cultural comparison and contrast researches conducted by many famous linguists and scholars.Through illustrating about the reasons why Chinese as a verby language in details，it will be easier to analyze the purposes that the linguists emphasize researches on MC structure in Chinese language.The China's domestic linguistics major researches and the developing profiles on MC structures in Chinese since 1968 as well as the positive and negative issues on “Chinese middle construction theory” made by the main representative of scholars and research theories related to their point of view[2].

Through literature and descriptive researches，we find that scholars such as Xu Shenghuan （2002），Caohong （2005）and Furukawa Yutaka（2005）generally hold Chinese “Verb+ qilai” as verb morphemes.They stress the form of “noun phrase + Verb + Adverb + adverb phrase”.However，other scholars，through to a large number of documents and relevant descriptive and comparison Chinese with foreign actual corpora，analysis，researches basing on syntax analysis and semantic meaning as the perspective of analysis compared Chinese corresponding structure and English，solemnly pointe out that Chinese MC issue is not true.Various interpretations are isolated systems.

4.Conclusion

English and Chinese verbs function is very different.The comparative study on English MC and Chinese verbs will be beneficial for the further researches on MC theories both in English and Chinese.

Reference：

[1]He Wen zhong.The Cognitive of Middle Construction[D].Beijing：Science Press，2007：5.

[2]Liu Fang.Analysis on the Correlation Between“Middle Construction”in English and Chinese[J].Harbin：The Border Economy And Culture，2014（12）：104.

作者简介：

刘芳（1974-），女，汉，哈尔滨人，讲师，硕士，从事英语教学法、跨文化交际、外国语言文学研究。