ADP: adposition
Definition
The Chinese ADP covers three categories of function words analyzed as adpositions: (1) “coverbs”/prepositions, (2) valence markers, and (3) “localizers”/postpositions.
Chinese coverbs introduce an extra participant/argument to the event/main verb in a clause (but note that many coverbs may also function as main verbs).
- 他 對 我 做 了 很 殘忍 的 事情 ／ tā duì wǒ zuò le hěn cánrěn de shìqíng “He did some cruel things to me.”
Valence markers such as the “disposal” 把 / bǎ and the “long passive” 被 / bèi (when followed by an agent noun) are also tagged ADP (however, the “short passive” 被 / bèi when not followed by a noun should be tagged AUX).
- 你 把 它 吃 掉 吧 / nǐ bǎ tā chī diào ba “You should eat it up.”
- 我 被 他 打 了 一 頓 / wǒ bèi tā dǎle yī dùn “I was given a beating by him.”
Localizers (also known as 方位詞 / fāngwèicí) serving as postpositions, typically indicate spatial information in relation to the noun preceding it. Some localizers have also grammaticalized into clausal markers indicating temporal information. Localizers with the clausal function are still tagged as ADP (but are labeled with the dependency relation mark). Note that when localizers are serving as a sentence constituent, like obj and obl, they should be tagged as NOUN.
- 我 把 梨子 放 在 桌子 上 / wǒ bǎ lízi fàng zài zhuōzi shàng “I’m putting the pears on the table.”
- 他 妻子 死 了 之後 ， 他 也 不 想 活 了 / tā qīzi sǐ le zhīhòu, tā yě bùxiǎng huó le “After his wife died, he no longer wants to live either.”
Examples
- Coverbs / prepositions
- 在 / zài “in, on, at”, 對 / duì “to, toward”, 跟 / gēn “with” (comitative), 用 / yòng “with” (instrumental), 為了 / wèile “for (sake of)”
- Valence markers
- 把 / bǎ (disposal), 將 / jiāng (disposal), 被 / bèi (long passive only)
- Postpositions
- (之)上 / (zhī)shàng “above”, (以)下 / (yǐ)xià “below, beneath”, 內 / nèi “inside”, 後 / hòu “behind; after”, 前 / qián “in front; before”, 中 / zhōng “in the middle; during”, 時 / shí “during”
ADP in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [el] [en] [es] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [gn] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [xcl] [yue] [zh]