Some Thoughts on the Polysemy of Chinese Verbs

Whereas in English, the meanings of verbs tend to come from the sorts of objects involved and the desired result of the action, Chinese verbs tend to define a different kind of prototype, or template, to which actions of various different types can be matched, even though they seem in our ‘English mindset’ to be very different, unrelated kinds of events. My description so far has been fairly abstract, so let’s take a look at a concrete example. Observe some of the English glosses of the Chinese verb 摆 bǎi:

摆 bǎi: 

(i) to place an object in a certain spot

e.g. 她把一个花瓶摆在桌子上。 ‘She placed a vase on the table.’

(ii) to state facts or reasons one-by-one

e.g. 遇到问题，吵架是没有用的，我们要摆事实讲道理。 ‘When we come across problems, there’s no point in fighting. Instead, we should state the (individual) facts and use reason.’

(iii) to show off

e.g. 有的人爱摆阔气。 ‘Some people like to show off their generosity.’ [from 380 Most Commonly Used Chinese Verbs]

(iv) to move back-and-forth

e.g. 家里的狗一看我进门，就高高兴兴地摆着尾巴。 ’As soon as our pet dog sees me come through the door, (s)he starts wagging his/her tail happily.’

The English senses do not seem particularly related – what does ‘moving back-and-forth’ have to do with ‘placing an object’? In English, to place is used when we are talking about a physical object being put in a particular location, whereas to state is used when we talk about certain abstract entities like facts, reasons and conditions. In our English conception, this makes placing and stating events sufficiently different that they should be represented by two distinct verbs. Showing off and moving back-and-forth are similarly considered as distinct events.

For Chinese, however, all four of these event-types are an abstraction away from the same event prototype (template) i.e. ‘to cause something to be seen’. This is shown in the following diagram (note the fact that move back-and-forth being able to serve as wag in certain contexts further shows this):

Chinese                                            English

摆 bǎi  cause to be seen            

→ particular object                        → to place

→ abstract entity                           → to state        

→ positive traits                                → to show off

→ through side-ways movement   → to move back-and-forth → to wag

Whereas Chinese dictionaries will typically list several senses for 摆 bǎi, this is really a case of polysemy (multiple related senses). It is, however, difficult for the student to abstract from the ‘deeper’ sense of  摆 bǎi to its particular contextual uses, as like I mentioned earlier, the prototypical properties of English verbs are based on different sorts of semantic divisions to those of Chinese and we are not so used to the Chinese distinctions. That being said, once the student spots the reasons for commonality between the various different senses of the same verb, it can be a huge aid to their ability to remember that verb, to understand it in a wide variety of contexts and to use it creatively themselves.

So, what sorts of lexical semantic properties define the meanings of Chinese verbs? Often, it appears to be to do with shape – either physical shape or the shape of a particular motion. Consider that穿 chuān can mean ‘to wear’, but also ‘to go through’ (e.g. 要到学校，你就必须穿过公园。 ‘If you want to get to the school, you must go through the park.’), these seemingly unrelated senses both being abstractions of the physical motion of one thing going through another (observe that when you put on clothing, you go through the clothing!).  The verb 抹 mǒ can mean ‘to smear’ e.g. with lipstick, but also ‘to wipe clean’ e.g. one’s face and ‘to erase / cross out’ e.g. something on the whiteboard, the commonality being a deliberate friction created between two objects (that adds or removes something from the surface that the friction is applied to). As you can see, the context-specific meanings of Chinese verbs often involve greater abstraction and sense of metaphor than English verbs. Here are some other examples (from 380 Most Commonly Used Chinese Verbs):

放 place | put on music | stop e.g. 放学 | dispatch e.g. 放枪 | add e.g. 放牛奶

抱 carry | have a hope / idea

递 pass | exchange / send e.g. 递眼色

吹 blow | play (wind instrument) | dry e.g. 吹头发 | have on e.g. 吹电扇

登 [ascend from a low place to a high place] climb e.g. 登山 | board e.g. 登车

扔 throw | discard | put aside e.g. 他把那件事扔在一边。

Of course, we can find examples of verbs differing in ‘meaning criteria’ between virtually any two languages. We can also find examples of English verbs whose properties are based on shape or motion. The difference here is in frequency of occurrence – Chinese verbs seem to be fairly routinely based on such fundamental, basic ontological properties, from which abstraction occurs into different senses in different contexts. English verbs, on the other hand, more often appear to be defined by more specific, idiosyncratic criteria. Naturally, it can only benefit the student to be aware of this fundamental difference between Chinese and English.