Hierarchical Structures of Self-initated Motion

Figure 12: Hierarchical Structures of the Self-initiated Motion

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Chapter 6

Conclusion and Further Research

6.1 Conclusion

This paper probes into the issue of alternated motion sequences in Mandarin Chinese. By investigating how verbs of motion are sequenced and their lexicalization patterns, we aim to account for the sequenctial mechanism that governs the alternation of linearizing motion verbs. The first question we have tackled is that what is the distributional pattern in between alternated Mandarian motion sequences? A thorough inspect on distributional frequency of alternated motion sequences suggests that conformed and reveserd motion sequences are skewed to unequal distributional patterns as a result of competitional effect or labor division for event types.

To set up the scope of alternated motion sequences, we overlooked verbs of motion plotted on the Deictic-Incorporated Pro-Motion Event Schema by Liu et al. (2012a) and exhausted all possible motion sequences that are allowed for sequential alternation. The scope of the thesis is hence set up by focusing on the ten pairs of alternation motion sequences. A close examination on their collocational variation as well as their interaction with Mandarin aspectual markers by investigating their lexicalization patterns with internal semantic components helps account for the following concern: what are the collo-constructional variations between alternated motion sequences in each pairs?

Since form and function are learned pairings in languages according to Constructional Grammer (Goldberg 1995), alternated sequences of Mandarin motion verbs will be linked to their corresponding semantic functions. As proposed in Chapter 5, Mandarin motion sequences can be suggested to have a spatial and non-spatial distinction on event types as manifested by their linearizing fashion as conformed or reversed sequence. We claim that verbs of motion in conformed sequence have a tendency to predicate spatial motion events while motion sequences in reversed order are prone to non-spatial predication of motion.

Utimately we attempt to postulate the sequential mechanism that governs the alternation of Mandarin motion sequences. That is to say, what is the semantic function associated with morphological alternation?

Finally we adopted the frame-based analysis to establish the hierarchical classification of motion sequences, the theory of Frame semantics (Fillmore and Atkins 1992) and the hierarchical taxonomy by Liu and Chiang (2008). This study presents a top-down frame-based

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classification of Mandarian motion sequences. Based on an overarching conceptual schema, Mandarin motion sequences are analyzed and categorized into different layers of frames with profiled frame elements (i.e. Primary frame), unique patterns foregrounding certain elements (i.e. Basic frame), and the internal lexical attributes (i.e. Microframe).

Untimately, the present paper attempts to shed some light on the widely discussed issue of motion sequences with a focus on their sequential alternated sequences. Adopting the frame-based analysis, we explore the collo-constructional interrelation in between the the alternated motion sequence and their co-ocurring participant roles, which specifies the syntax-to-semantic correlation as evidenced in our observation from corpus data. By revealing and investigating the intriguing alternated motion sequences, we aim to account for the compositional mechanism of alternated motion sequences by investigating the semantic-to-morphological correlation. We attempt to postulate how the morphological forms can be matched with semantic predication of spatial and non-spatial uses.

6.2 Further Research

There are some potential issues worth exploring in the future for theorectical implications. First, the thesis mainly tackles alternated motion sequences predicating self-initiated motion without considering other-initiated motion events. It is noted that some motion sequences in discussion may pertain to dual motion that exhibits an alternation between self-initiated and other-initiated usages. See jiàng-xià 降下 ‘descend to go down’

for example.

(76) a. 黃山風景區降下了[入冬以來第一場大雪/Moving Entity]。

b. 美軍降下[國旗/Moved Entity]。

By observing the participants roles co-ocurring with motion sequences, we suggest that (75a) is a self-initiated motion with a moving entity dà.xuě 大雪 ‘heavy snow’ taking motion by itself. (75b) expresses a other-initiated motion event with a moved entity guóqí 國 旗 ‘national flag.’ In addition to jiàng-xià 降下 ‘descend to go down’, many motion sequences like sheng-shàng 升上 ‘rise to go up’ and luò-xià 落下 ‘fall to go down’ are also found to denote dual motion events. This unique set of motion verbs or sequences can be another noteworthy issue to explore that may shed some light on the interrelation between both self-initiated and other-initiated motion.

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Secondly, the cognitive mechanism in which a spatial motion event is metaphorically extended to non-spatial usages as well as the semantic properties defining a non-spatial event have not yet been investigated so far. How can one determine a given motion event is predicating spatial or non-spatial usages? It goes without saying that many essential issues regarding verbs of motion and their sequential order in Mandarin are not yet investigated at this point. The goal of this thesis, however, aims to provide the semantic-to-morphological interrelation in aid of a frame-based analysis so as to bring about more interests on Mandarin serial motion constructions.

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Web Resources:

1. Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese (http://db1x.sinica.edu.tw/kiwi/mkiwi/)

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