204 MARK HANSELL
verbs, that is, no verbs that unambiguously express a situation where an
activity is carried out to its expected terminal point, yielding a resultant
state. (See "Synopsis", sect. 3.2.) Rather, accomplishment verbs are
formed using the CR, with the activity verb as Vl and the resulting state or
achievement as V 2. For example:
(15) a. Wo kán shu. (ACTIVITY verb)
I read book
"I read/ am reading a book."
b. Wo kán döng le nei ben shü
I read understand ASP that CLF book
"I understood that book (by way of reading)".
(ACCOMPLISHMENT verb: ACTIVITY kàn+ STATE döng)
(16) a. Tä qiäo fànwàn. (ACTIVITY verb)
he hit ricebowl
"He hits a ricebowl."
b. Tä zài qiäo fànwàn. (ACTIVITY verb W/PROG)
he PROG hit ricebowl
"He's hitting a ricebowl."
c. Tä qiäo pò le yí ge fànwàn.
he hit break ASP. one CLF ricebowl
"He broke a ricebowl (by hitting it)."
(ACCOMPLISHMENT: ACTIVITY qiäo + ACHIEVEMENT pò)
ά. *Tä zài qiäo pò yí ge fànwàn.
he PROG hit break one CLF ricebowl
"He is breaking a ricebowl."
(15a) and (15b) simply illustrate the principle that combination of an activ
ity Vj with a stative V 2 can produce a CR that is an accomplishment verb in
effect. (16a-d) are similar, except that the V 2 is an achievement, not a state.
Since ability to take the progressive is restricted to activity verbs, (16b) and
(16d) show clearly that by entering the CR construction, the V\ qiäo ceases
to be an activity verb.
Another correlate of the change from activity to accomplishment verb
is a change in a grammatical category peculiar to Mandarin, "disposal".
Disposal is an oft-discussed (Chao 1968, Wang 1969, Li and Thompson
1981 among others) property of verbs that is required if those verbs are to
occur in the bà (pretransitive) or bèi (passive or patient-focus) construction.