A Contrastive Study of the Locative Alternations in Japanese and English: A Hierarchical Model of Semantic Types of Verbs

处所替换是指某类动词在句法框架中引起的替换现象。本研究探讨了日英两种语言中方位词交替的机制，认为两种语言中的方位词交替都是语义类型转换的结果，在语义类型转换中，同一客观事件在语言学上被概念化为位置变化的子类型或状态变化的子类型，可以通过假设动词语义类型的三个层次来解释：一个层次确定动词的句法框架，一个较低的层次确定动词是否经历交替，以及一个更低的层次确定交替的允许模式。虽然日语和英语的方位格交替产生的机制相同，但两种语言的交替动词列表略有不同。这种差异可以通过每个动词的语义特征来解释。

The locative alternation is a phenomenon in which a certain class of verbs causes an alternation in syntactic frames. This study discussed the mechanism of the Japanese and English locative alternations.The locative alternation in both languages arises as a result of a semantic type shift, in which the same objective event is linguistically conceptualized either as a subtype of a change of location or a subtype of a change of state, and can be accounted for by assuming three hierarchically ordered levels in semantic types of verbs: a level determining the syntactic frame of a verb, a lower level determining whether a verb undergoes alternation, and a much lower level determining the allowable pattern of the alternation. Although the Japanese and English locative alternations arise by the same mechanism, the lists of alternating verbs slightly differ between the two languages. This difference can be accounted for by the semantic characteristics of each verb.