First, the relationship between verbs and objects.
When it comes to transitivity of verbs, we should talk about the relationship between verbs and objects and classify objects. The semantics of objects are very rich and can express many meanings. Meng Cong (1987) classified noun objects into fourteen categories according to their syntactic changes and semantic features, while Huang Borong and Liao Xudong (2007) classified the semantic types of objects into three categories. In this paper, the object of "eating" is divided into the patient object (action or behavior is directly related to things, and the word "ba" can generally be used as a noun), the tool object (the object refers to the tool or material used in the action), the mode object (in a certain way, the noun can be placed in front of the verb), the location object (the action or behavior is located or occurs somewhere) and the source object (.
Second, the transitivity of Chinese "eat"
"Eat" is a transitive verb in Chinese, with rich semantics, which can refer to chewing and swallowing drunk food, such as "eat" and "take medicine"; It can also refer to living by people or things, such as "eating parents"; It can also refer to sucking (liquid) and suffering, such as "eating oil" and "suffering"; It is also often used in military affairs and chess, meaning to destroy, such as "eating a car". The noun object of "eat" in and after the sentence constitutes the semantic relationship of patient, tool, way, place and source;
(1) Southerners like rice, while northerners like steamed bread.
(2) Grandma likes to eat big bowls.
(3) Eat the canteen every day.
He is a general all the year round and never eats small stoves.
(5) relying on mountains to eat mountains and relying on water to draft.
(6) Eat ten people at a table.
In the example (1), "rice" and "steamed bread" are the objects to eat, and the action of "eating" directly acts on the objects of "rice" and "steamed bread", and the rice and steamed bread are eaten. The word "eat" in Chinese has a wide range. All edible food, whether solid or liquid, can be matched with "eat" as the patient object of "eat". The "big bowl" in example (2) is a tool for eating, and as the object of the tool, the "big bowl" is the tool on which the action of "eating" depends. In Chinese, not all nouns can be used as the object of "eating", but only the nouns of utensils for holding food, such as big bowls, small bowls and steel bowls. The "canteen" in Example (3) is a place to eat, and the action of "eating" takes place in the canteen, that is, eating in the canteen. Similarly, not all nouns in the table can be eaten, only nouns in places where food is provided can be eaten, such as eating in canteens and canteens, but not eating in schools and dormitories. Because "canteen" and "dining room" are originally places to provide food, people come here to eat, while "school" and "dormitory" are places for people to study and sleep, so they can't be places to eat. The "small stove" in Example (4) is the way of "eating". As the object of the way, eating like this is eating with a small stove. Only nouns indicating cooking methods can be used as eating objects, such as "eating stir-fry", "eating from a big pot" and "eating in groups", and other nouns are not allowed. "Mountain" and "water" in Example (5) are the sources of "eating". As a source, it means living on what mountains or water can produce. Such source objects generally refer to direct or indirect food sources, such as "eating friends" and "eating rent". The "ten people" in Example (6) is the agent of "eating" in the sentence. As the agent object, it means that ten people eat a table of rice. The agent object must contain quantitative elements, and the noun must refer to people, such as "ten people", but it cannot be "ten mice eat a table of rice".
In Chinese, "eat" can take both noun and adjective objects. For example, "losing money" and "losing money"
Thirdly, the transitivity of English "eating"
In English, "eat" can be used as both a transitive verb and an intransitive verb. When used as an intransitive verb, there is no object behind it, and when used as a transitive verb, there is an object behind it:
I don't eat meat.
The "meat" in Example (7) is the patient of "eating". As the patient object, English "eat" is far less semantic than Chinese "eat". It can only take nouns representing food as the patient object, but not agents, tools, places, ways, sources and other objects like Chinese. If you want to express the tools, places and ways of Chinese character "eating", you need to use the preposition "zai/Yong/Pei". English is a language that emphasizes weight and sound. English verbs have a clear voice, the subject uses the active voice and the subject uses the passive voice, so there is no agent relationship between verbs and objects in English.
Four. conclusion
When the Chinese character "eat" has a noun object in the sentence, it can be directly matched with food, with tools for holding food, with the way of making food and the source of food. In English, "eat" can only take solid food nouns as objects.
Compared with English, the transitivity of Chinese "eat" is more concise and economical, and nouns representing tools, ways and places are used as objects, which saves the tedious expression of prepositions.
References:
Jeff. Transitivity and four related verbs [J]. Language studies, 200 1,
(3).
[2] Meng Cong. Dictionary of verb usage [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 1987.
[3] Huang Borong, Liao Xudong. Modern Chinese [M]. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2007.
(Lu, Department of Pharmacy, Tongren Vocational College, Guizhou, 554300)