The Semantics of Stative Locative Events in Vietnamese: A Spatial Exploration

Abstract

This study investigates stative locative event semantics in Vietnamese using mathematical formalism, categorizing events as bijective or surjective based on Figure-Ground argument mapping. Building on Figure/Ground semantics (Talmy, 1975), event structure (Jackendoff, 1990), and predicate syntax (Nam, 1995), bijectives denote one-to-one argument mappings while surjectives permit one argument to map to multiple others. Through analysis of Vietnamese sentences, the study shows bijectives unambiguously localize Figures and Grounds in a one-to-one manner, contrasting with the flexibility of surjectives allowing single Figures to map onto multiple Grounds. This novel bijective/surjective distinction advances understanding of locative event typologies and provides an explanatory model for cross-linguistic analysis. Scrutinizing Figure-Ground mapping as bijective/surjective functions elucidates fundamental differences in stative locative semantics, furthering comprehension of how language encodes static spatial relations through the complex interplay of verbal semantics and argument structure. This integrated formal semantic approach combining predicate logic, set theory and lexical syntax has significant applications in theoretical and computational linguistics, and cognitive science.