The comparison of presentative sentences and their transformations in Chinese and Thai

Abstract

In this paper, syntactic, semantic, and cognitive theories are used to compare and analyze Chinese and Thai presentative sentences, with respect to their transformations of three basic components: location or space, verb predicate, and noun predicate.
The following conclusion is reached: in transformations of presentative Thai sentences, there is a much greater scope of verb choice and usage. The word order of the transformative structure, “( 有 )NP + V + 在 + NPL” in Chinese is the same as the Thai sentences with the verb placement in front.
In Thai, the time marker “lƐƐw”, measure words, and numeral quantifiers have not developed in the same manner as Chinese bounded markers which are all grammatically required in presentative sentences. The usage of bounded markers in Thai presentative sentences are optional, and are not required to the same degree in Chinese presentative sentences. In addition, by examining Chinese native speakers and Thai learners of Chinese, and their usage and transformation of presentative sentences, we found that Thai students are more accustomed to using “ 有 ” in presentative sentences and their transformations. Our explanations are: 1) In certain Thai sentences, “有” is the verb which is placed at the beginning of the sentence, 2) the scope of verb usage in Thai presentative sentences are much less than in Chinese, 3) in Thai, prepositions are grammatically placed after the verb predicate, with the location modifier indicating the point of departure or arrival placed at the end of the sentence. Therefore, Thai is not amenable to forming presentative sentences.