Conceptual Schema of Direction Markers

According to Liu et al. (2012), a motion event involves a journey or contour with a certain Manner, passing through a Route, in a given Direction, toward a chosen Endpoint, and finally approaching the Destination with an optional Deictic oriented center. In such motion sequence, the traditional notion of Path is further categorized into Route, Direction, and Endpoint. The whole picture of the conceptual schema starts with a moving entity (Figure) with a chosen way of movement (Manner). The moving entity may have a non-movement event taking place in a place (Ground), or a motion contour the moving entity may adopt to pass an immediate point (Route NP) with a landmark (Directional NP) and finally reaches its final destination (Locative NP). The speaker-oriented perspective (Deictic) may or may not include in the self-initiated motion event. The following section provides futher discussion about

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the conceptual schema of the four Direction markers miàn 面, cháo 朝, xiàng 向 and wǎng 往.

As mentioned in chapter four, miàn 面 does not collocate with motional verbs. As shown in the following example, the major difference is that miàn 面 always collocates with static body postures such as tǎng 躺, zhàn 站, zuò 坐, etc.

And if the static verb is replaced by any other motional verb such as pǎo 跑, fēi 飛, zǒu 走, then the whole sentence becomes rather odd.

(24) a. 凱洛琳側身面牆躺著

kǎi luò lín cè shēn miàn qiáng tǎng zhe Caroline a-side face wall lie ASP

‘Caroline lies down and turns the body to face the wall.’

b. ^?凱洛琳側身面牆走著

kǎi luò lín cè shēn miàn qiáng zǒu zhe Caroline a-side face wall lie ASP

Thus, miàn 面 itself does not indicate a path. In a commonly used phrase such as 面南, it indicates to face south without any other motional contour. The Figure does not involve any movement as shown below:

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In diagram (3), the circle represents the entity, which is the Figure with or without movement and the arrow on the circle represents the orientation. In the case of miàn 面, since the Figure does not involve with any movement, there is no any route specified in the schema but only the Figure and its orientation.

As for other Direction markers cháo 朝, xiàng 向 and wǎng 往, it can be found that cháo 朝 and xiàng 向 can be either motional or non-motional but wǎng 往 tends to be only used as a motional marker. The conceptual schema of each of these Direction marker is given below respectively.

Cháo 朝 allows to collocate with not only static body posture verbs which is similar to the usage of miàn 面 but also motional verbs as illustrated in the following examples.

(25) 企鵝直挺挺地朝著同樣的方向站著

Qì é zhí tǐng tǐng dì cháo zhe tóng yàng de fāng xiàng zhàn zhe Penguines straightly face ASP same DE direction stand ASP

‘The penguins are all standing straightly toward the same direction.’

Figure

Diagram ( 3 ): Conceptual schema of miàn 面

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(26) 你看竿子朝你來了

Nǐ kàn gān zǐ cháo nǐ lái le

You see stick toward you come ASP

‘You saw the stick came toward you.’

Thus, in the use of cháo 朝, it not only points out the orientation for the Figure, but may also include a possible path leading the Figure to move toward the direction.

In the above diagram, the circle represents the Figure, the arrow on the circle represents the orientation, and the dotted line with arrow indicates the possible moving contour.

Xiàng 向, however, shares some similarities with cháo 朝 since both xiàng 向 and cháo 朝 can either only point to an orientation without movement or they can also lead to the specified direction on the possible path. Examples are given below:

Figure

Diagram ( 4 ): Conceptual scmema of cháo 朝

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(27) 像個芭蕾舞員向著舞台下的觀眾

Xiàng ge bā lěi wǔ yuán xiàng zhe wǔ tái xià de guān zhòng Like a balet-dancer face ASP stage down DE audience

‘Like a balet dancer facing the audience down stage.’

(28) 小鳥躍出鳥籠飛向自由天空

Xiǎo niǎo yuè chū niǎo lóng fēi xiàng zì yóu tiān kōng Little bird jump out bird-cage fly toward free sky

‘The bird flied out to the free sky.’

(29) 大家一起向前跑

Dà jiā yì qǐ xiàng qián pǎo

Everyone together toward front run

‘Everyone runs toward front together.’

As examples above indicate, xiàng 向 does not necessarily involve motional verbs. In addition, a huge amount of data suggest that the basic meaning of xiàng 向 is target oriented and it would be odd if xiàng 向 is replaced by other Direction markers as exemplified below.

(30) a. 男子向父母要錢不成

Nán zi xiàng fù mǔ yào qián bù chéng Man toward parients ask-for money fail

‘The man failed to ask his parients for money.’

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b. ^?男子朝父母要錢不成

Nán zi cháo fù mǔ yào qián bù chéng Man face parients ask-for money fail

c. ^*男子往父母要錢不成

Nán zi wǎng fù mǔ yào qián bù chéng Man go-toward parients ask-for money fail

There are more examples below illustrating the target oriented pattern of 向.

In such sentences, xiàng 向 can normally be substituted by duì 對.

(31) 他看到了我，親切地向我微笑

Tā kàn dào le wǒ，qīn qiē dì xiàng wǒ wēi xiào 3sg see ASP me, nicely to me smile

‘He saw me and smiled at me nicely.’

(32) 你向他說話

Nǐ xiàng tā shuō huà You toward 3sg speak

‘You speak to him.’

Thus, the basic function of xiàng 向 is to specify the target of the action which is shown by the following diagram.

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The left circle represents the Figure, the short arrow on the circle is the direction, the dotted line is the possible path, and the right circle is the Target of the Figure’s action.

The last Direction marker wǎng 往 normally implies a path. In other words, the verbs that collocate with wǎng 往 are normally motional and can never be static. Example below shows that the static verb such as tǎng 躺 does not collocate with wǎng 往 since wǎng 往 indicates a path while tǎng 躺 does not.

(33) a. 往門口走去

Wǎng mén kǒu zǒu qù Go-toward gate walk go

‘Go toward the gate.’

b. *往門口躺去

Wǎng mén kǒu tǎng qù Go-toward gate lie go

Figure Target

Diagram ( 5 ): Conceptual schema of xiàng 向

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Also, the NP after wǎng 往 is not only a direction but also a destination in following examples.

(34) 我今晚會飛往泰國

Wǒ jīn wǎn huì fēi wǎng tài guó I tonight will fly go-toward Thai

‘I will fly to Thai tonight.’

(35) 火車開往新竹

Huǒ chē kāi wǎng xīn zhú Train drive go-toward Hsinchu

‘The train drives toward Hsinchu.’

The examples above indicate that there would be a Figure that goes toward a destination with a path. Just like the following diagram where the left circle represents the Figure, the arrow on the circle represents the direction, the line between the two circles is the path, and the right circle is the final destination of the movement.

Figure Destination

Diagram ( 6 ): Conceptual schema of wǎng 往

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5.2 Synonymous Comparisons

Section 5.2 discusses in detail the similarities and differences between the synonymous set such as in 5.2.1, the differences of [向 + NP] vs. [往 + NP] are discussed; in section 5.2.2, [往 + NP] vs. [到 + NP] is discussed; and section 5.2.3 compares the structure of preverbal use of Direction markers vs. postverbal use of Direction markers.

5.2.1 Distinction of 向 NP vs. 往 NP

This section discusses the distinction of [向 + NP] and [往 + NP], the two seemingly semantic identical structures. In some cases, xiàng 向 and wǎng 往 indeed can be substitude by each other without changing any of the meaning since both xiàng 向 and wǎng 往 indicate the direction for the moving entity (Lu 1999, Chang 2000) as the following examples show:

(36) 許多夏候鳥正展翅飛向臺灣

xǔ duō xià hòu niǎo zhèng zhǎn chì fēi xiàng tái wān Many summer migratory-bird fly face Taiwan

‘Many migratory birds are flying toward Taiwan.’

(37) 走往教室

zǒu wǎng jiào shì Go go-toward classroom

‘Go toward the classroom.’