The diachronic development and synchronic diversity of the disyllabic-directional complements in Chinese: A corpus-based cross-linguistic study on the grammaticalization pathways and semantic change of the disyllabic-directional complements.

摘要

As a unique feature in Chinese language, over 81% of verbs can take a directional complement (DC). The extended meanings of disyllabic DC (DDC) construction are especially difficult for learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL). However, an understanding of language change and metaphorical mapping can help adult learners to better comprehend and use it correctly.; Using data drawn from 46 representative (with 65 extended) historical documents or corpora in various genres from 11th century BC Archaic Chinese to modern Mandarin, this research studied the development of the eleven contemporary and classical directional verbs, viz. ( qiˇ, rise, up), (shang, ascend, up), (xia, descend, down), (jin, enter, in), (chu, exit, out), (huiˇ, return, back), (guo, cross, over), ( zhuaˇn, turn), (kai, open, away), ( ru, enter, in), and (gui, return, back), and their association with) (lai, come) and ( qu, go).; In particular, this study focused on (qiˇlai, get up, come up), (xialai, come down), and (xiaqu, go down). They are the only ones among the 22 DDCs that have gone further in the grammaticalization paths in terms of mapping from a spatial domain onto a temporal domain as an aspect marker. (qiˇqu, go up), which is still in use in major dialects, though not detected in the corpus for contemporary Chinese, is included in the discussion as it was once used, and is a very interesting missing link in Mandarin Chinese.; Qiˇlai, xialai, and xiaqu were first found functioning as DDCs in the mid-10 th century. The data support an interesting discovery that the extended meanings of DDC-r and DDC-s came into being around the same time as the more basic, directional meaning (DDC-d). In the centuries that followed, these three DDCs proliferated as reflected both in their increased token frequency and in associating with a wider variety of preceding verbs. The abstract DDC-s meaning gradually became its dominant usage as time progressed.; This study also provides a few suggestions and pedagogical implications for teaching CSL learners the extended meanings of DDCs.