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‘across’ 過去, and xiaqu ‘get down’ 下去, etc (Liu, 1983/1998) . They have similar properties of a semantically directional movement and a syntactically verb-preceding structure. Liu categorizes the directional verb complements into three groups, based on the usage in the changing of the standpoints. Lai2‘come’ 來 and qu4 ‘go’ 去 compose a group, because the speakers may switch the words owing to the standpoints. In the sentence 老師把張三找來 Laoshi ba Zhangsan zhaolai ‘The teacher called John back,’ the location of the teacher is the endpoint of the movement.
However, in 張三跑去學校 Zhangshan paoqu xuexiao ‘John ran to the school’, the
starting point depends on where John is, and the endpoint is the school. Shang4 ‘up’
上, xia4‘down’ 下, qi3‘upward’ 起, jin4‘get in to’進, kuo4‘across’ 過, dao4 ‘arrive’
到, and kai ‘open’ 開 show the speaker’s interaction with the location. Then, the
above complements can be combined with another complement lai2 or qu4. Thus, in the present study, the group of shang complements will be also discussed with shang as the basic directional complements.
1.1 Motivation and Purpose
Shang as a directional verb complement attaches to the preceding verb into a
directional verb compound (hereinafter referred to as DVC). Generally, shang contains meanings as a verb, a locative and a verb complement. Locative shang
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presents the prototypical meaning of the spatial position of an object. In regard to shang as a verb complement, some researchers have discovered that shang expresses
polysemous senses. Essentially, shang in a verb-complement shows the orientation of an action. The meaning is that the object moves from a lower position to a higher position (Liu, 1998). Some researchers suggest that shang shows several extended meanings, and the extended senses of shang are adding, closing, starting, and getting to a state, a purpose or a particular number (Shi, 1993; Zhang, 1995; Liu, 1998; Lu, 2011). Further, Shi (1993) and Zhang (1995) added other meanings of shang:
occurring, containing and accomplishment. Liu (1983) has mentioned that shang implies the movement of getting to a place.
Applying the methodology of Principled Polysemy (Evans 2004; Tyler and Evans 2003), Lu (2011) has identified six meanings of shang, including ‘vertically attained,’
‘vertically higher,’ ‘forward,’ ‘attached,’ ‘completive,’ and ‘inceptive.’ In sum,
extended meanings can be presented as the following examples in (2).
(2)
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‘fall in love with music’
f. Accomplishment 考上大學
kao shang da-xue
‘pass the university entrance examination’
Previous studies categorized the usages of shang as a complement in different ways, and most of the extended meanings of shang are affected by those of preceding verbs. This analysis makes the meanings of shang more complex. Liu, Shi, and Zhang believe that the basic meaning of shang is related to movement. Extended meanings are from concrete to abstract or from spatial to time, and there are at least six types.
Preceding verbs greatly affect the meaning of shang, so lexical feature-checking is used in directional compounds. In total, there are ten possible meanings for shang, including basic and extended senses.
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Yet, when the researchers have to determine the meaninings of shang, the additional meanings of shang in (2) are afftected by preceding verbs (Liu, 1999). For example, shang in (2a) means ‘to add,’ but shang in (2b) means ‘to close.’ It is doubtful whether ‘to add’ and ‘to close’ are meanings ascribable to shang or not. Also, (2c) shows that shang can imply ‘occurring,’ but the verb xie ‘write’ 寫 has the meaning ‘to trace and form characters,’ which inherently implies the sense of the occurrence of words. (2d) indicates that shang could mean ‘contain,’ but the meaning must be obtained from the first predicate zhuang ‘to contain’ 裝. If shang is deleted, the phrasal meanings are not changed. Therefore, shang is a neutral word which is influenced by the preceding verbs.
When regarding the V-shang pattern (hereinafter referred to as “V-shang”) as a verb compound, the previous studies indicate the movement of the figure and also imply the result of a state or action (Fan, 1991; Chen, 1994; Liu, 1998). Generally, V-shang can denote three things—a direction, a result of an action, and time reference (Sun and Yuan, 2004). Non-directional meanings may be regarded as a state. A time reference and a result may even function as an aspect. In addition to the usage of vertical movement in (1) above, other usages of shang are presented in (3a-b).
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(3) a. 李四 戴 上 帽子 了。
Lisi dai shang maozi le Lisi put on cap ASP
‘Lisi put on the cap.’
b. 這件事 張三 抱怨 上 一年 了。
Zhejianshi zhangsan baoyuan-shang yi-nian le This thing zhangsan complain one year ASP
Lisi has complained of this thing for one year.
However, the complex analysis of the lexical meaning of shang as verb complement is the same as that of the compound meanings of V-shang. The categorization of V-shang is not unified. Researchers categorized V-shang into different kinds of meanings, but some examples do not represent the meaning of the categories into which they are placed, and there are several problems of ambiguity in the explanation of the different categories. Therefore, the main purpose of the present project is to categorize V-shang based on a theoretical approach.
1.2 The organization of the thesis
This thesis is arranged into six chapters. Chapter 2 will introduce the previous studies of V-shang from semantic and syntactic viewpoints. Early studies do not classify V-shang by a consistent methodology, so Chapter 3 describes the theoretical framework which is used to categorize V-shang in this thesis. The framework will be
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based on Talmy’s motion-event theory. Chapter 4 demonstrates the three categories of V-shang and the features of NP complement followed by V-shang and motion orientation in each category. Chapter 5 concentrates on the verb types in each category.
In order to disccuss the relationship between the lexical semantics and syntactic structure of V-shang, this study utilizes Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) to analyze V-shang. Chapter 6 provides a conclusion containing the main points of the thesis and describes issues for further study.
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Chapter 2
Literature review of studies of V-shang
The early studies indicated that shang4 in V-shang showed multiple senses from concrete to abstract or from spatial to temporal. Even though they pointed out the identities of V-shang, the classifications were not unified in a coherent framework. In their studies, each category was investigated with different criteria, including semantics, syntax, or even pragmatics. Semantically, the use of V-shang could be grouped into three general meanings. The first meaning refers to directional movement, which is not controversial in the previous studies, but the descriptions of the other two senses were not clear. The second sense is defined to show a particular result of an action or accomplishment. The third sense may be defined by different researchers. There are kinds of meanings, such as accomplishment of an action, state, the beginning of a new state or on-going time reference.
Further, besides semantic meanings, the previous studies also found the syntactic functions of directional complements. According to their analyses of directional verb complements like xia4 ‘down’下, qi 3 ‘up’ 起, hui2 ‘back’回, kuo4 ‘across’過, jing4
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‘get into’進, chu ‘out’出, dao4 ‘arrive’到, and kai ‘open’開, the syntactic features of V-shang can function as a resultative complement, an aspect marker, or an particle.
In the following sections, section 2.1 will introduce the compound meanings of shang in V-shang, including vertical movement, result, and state. Section 2.2
discusses the syntactic status which previous studies have mentioned. And the last section will give a brief conclusion.
2.1 Semantic meanings of V-shang
2.1.1 Directional movement
Liu (1998) provided an overall view of DVCs and found that there were three kinds of meanings: directional movement, a result and a state. In Liu (1998), the directional movement can be divided into the vertical movement from low to high and a translational approaching movement as seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Directional movement of Shang (Liu 1998:81)
(a). Vertical movement (b). Translational movement
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Other researchers also suggested other features (Jiang, 2003; Pan, 2005). Jiang (2003) proposed that NP complement followed by V-shang which may convey the directional meaning would indicate a location, for instance, (4) gaotaijie ‘high step’
高台階. This type of shang can usually be replaced by xia4 ‘down’ 下. Both shang
and xia indicate the vertical direction of movement. Pan (2005) named the first category as ‘arrive at a place’ and divided directional shang into two subcategories in view of the movement of agent and patient in (4) below. V-shang in (4a) expresses an
agentive action.
(4) a. Agent movement (Liu 1998:81/Pan 2005:23)
江濤 走 上 高台階，拉了 一下 門鈴。
jiangtao zou-shang gaotaijie la-le yi-xia men-ling jiangtao walk up high step pull once doorbell ‘jiangtao walked up the high step and pulled the doorbell.’
b. Patient movement (Pan 2005:24)
開完會， 濤他娘 又 端上 一盅酒菜。
Kai-wan-hui tao-ta-niang you duan-shang yi-zhong-jiu-cai Finish meeting tao’s mother again bring drink and food ‘After the meeting finished, Tao’s mother brought drink and food again.’
Otherwise, in (4b) above, V-shang has a causative meaning, so the movement indicates the cause of the result. Since location NP follows V-shang, ‘V-shang NP’ can be transferred into the pattern ‘V dao ‘到’ NP shang’ ; for example, pao dao shan
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shang ‘run up to the mountain’ 跑到山上 form pao-shang shan ‘ran up to the
mountain’跑上山. Shang thereupon becomes a locative, and the prepositional phrase of dao NP shang ‘up to the mountain’ 到山上 is the complement of the verb.
According to its behavior, directional shang can act as a directional verb.
Essentially, the researchers suggested that the directional meaning of V-shang should be the prototypical meaning, according to the historical point of view, which is concerned with the fact that shang was originally derived from its use as a usage verb like shang shan ‘climb up the mountain’ 上山.
2.1.2 The meaning of result
In the category of the meaning of ‘result,’ Liu (1998) has suggested that the meanings should be regarded as ‘attachment’ and ‘fixed points,’ because V-shang can make an object touch another object, such as a container. There are twelve types of verbs collocating with shang, for example, close, cover, adjoin, add, wear, occur, walk, compose, compare and select, etc. The resultative meaning is concrete, because shang
is collocated with preceding verbs to represent a meaning.
Liu (1998) also proposed that ‘result’ could be divided into basic result and non-basic result. The basic result is derived from an action with a Natural result; for example, the action of wearing clothes made the object become dressed. A non-basic
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result is affected by a subjective or objective influence with the force of Unnatural factors; for instance, the result of being accepted by the college could be influenced.
Jiang (2003) proposed that the category of result attaches to abstract objects rather than to location. Shang is no longer able to be substituted with xia4 ‘down’ 下, and ba2 把 can occur with V-shang in other word sequence like that in (5). Jiang suggested that only the second type can express the meaning of a person refusing to
do an action.
(5) a. 鎖上大門
suo-shang-damen lock shang door ‘lock the door’
b. 把大門鎖上
ba damen suo-shang ‘lock the door’
Pan (2005) indicated that the subject was placed in a state, and the result of the action can be transcribed by two points of view. The patient was caused to become closed, covered, attached or mixed. The agent is able to come to new states of arriving at a goal, achieving a goal, or running into something. The noun phrases following V-shang refer to the patient of the verb rather than to the location. (6) lists the possible verbs collocated with shang in this category.
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(6) a. closed state with verbs like guan 關, gua4 掛, la 拉, he2 合, and jie 接 b. covered state with verbs like ya 壓, gai4 蓋, zhao4 罩, and tian2 填 c. attached state with verbs like pu 鋪, tie 貼, chuan 穿, and dai4 戴 d. mixed state with verbs like jia 加, bu3 補, pei4 配, and suan4 算
e. arriving at a goal with verbs zhui 追, gan3 趕, gen 跟 f. achieving a goal with verbs kao3 考, dang 當, chi 吃, and kan4 看 g. encountering something with verbs yu4 遇, gan3 趕, peng4 碰
Also, Yu (2010), in the category of resultative V-shang, has mentioned that stative verbs which are adjoined to shang express meanings of degree, such as hao3 ‘good’
好, gui4 ‘expensive’貴, shen ‘deep’深, gao ‘tall’高, and da4 ‘big’大.
From the points of view of these researchers, it can be observed that the resultative meaning conveyed by V-shang is the same as the main feature of resultative verb complements (RVCs). No matter what the names of their category from previous studies are, their second and third category can be generalized into ‘a result,’ and, the directional movement category can be tested by Thompson (1973)’s analysis, so the semantic meaning of V-shang should be uniform in one sense. The behavior of this kind of V-shang is also similar to the resultative meaning in RVCs
2.1.3 The meaning of state
The third category is the most complicated, because different studies categorize it under different names. The present study takes account of the analysis of Liu (1998)
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to select ‘a state’ to present the third category. The meanings of a state can refer to the beginning to a new state and to the start of an action. The particular definitions are ‘a state of getting to a number’ and ‘a state of getting to a purpose.’
Category of ‘state’ is more abstract than category of ‘result,’ because it shows the extended aspectual function. It means that the action caused the object to get into a new state, and it also includes an ‘ongoing’ aspect. The verbs include stative verbs like ai4 ‘love’愛. Mostly, stative verbs can be attached to a directional complement in the category of ‘state’. Stative verbs are used, such as hao3 ‘good’ 好 and re4 ‘hot’
熱. Qilai ‘up’ 起來 can be replaced by shang. Other stative verbs include twenty-two words, such as zhang2 ‘long’長, man4 ‘slow’慢, mang2 ‘busy’忙, mei3 ‘pretty’美, pang4 ‘fat’胖, and tiao2pi2 ‘naughty’ 調皮 (Yu, 2010).
Pan (2005) proposed that, in the type of ‘state,’ V-shang indicates that the subject will arrive at a new state; that is, the subject starts doing something or makes a new start. (7) presents three examples which are seldom used in Mandarin Chinese.
(7) New state-dynamic particle
a. 領上 孩子 出去 逃個活命吧! (Pan 2005:32) ling-shang hai-zi chu-qu tao-ge-huo-ming-ba
bring shang kids out escape survive ‘Bring your kids out and escape to survive’
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b. 幹上 兩年， 他 就 又 可以 買 兩輛車。(Pan 2005:33) Gan-shang liang-nian ta jiu you keyi mai liang-liang-che
Do shang two years he again can buy two cars After doing the job for two years, he can buy two cars again.
c. 這麼快 就 和 姓王的那小子 好上了! (Pan 2005:33) Zhe-me-kuai jiu he xing-Wang-de-na-xiao-zi hao-shang-le
So fast with name Wang de that guy good shang ‘How quickly she and that guy Wang got together.’
And, semantically, the category of ‘state’ is similar to the category of result in that it also indicates a change of state. In the example of ‘arrive at a new state,’ the types of NP objects also overlap with examples from the resultative V-shang; for example, (7a) shows that the patient is affected by the action of the subject, so it still can indicate result of the action. (7b) presents the action as continuing for a period of time, but Pan argues that it indicates a new state. The last type in (7c) is the most ambiguous and unclear.
Yu (2010) suggested that V-shang with a time reference, as in the sentences in (8a), should be classified as an action of result, which differs from Pan’s classification. And, Yu further regarded time reference as part of the group of quantifiers.
(8) a. 他 在河水裡 泡上 三天三夜 Ta zai-heshui-li pao-shang santiansanye He in the river bath three days and nights ‘he took a bath for three days and three nights in the river.’
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b. 他 一下 就 愛上 辛棄疾的詞 了。
ta yi-xia jiu ai-shang xinqiji-de-ci le
he immediately love shang xinqiji’s poetry
‘he immediately fell in love with the poetry of Xinqiji.’
c. 比 過去的 光景 好上 幾倍。
bi guo-qu-de guang-jing hao-shang ji-bei more (compared) past situation good shang a few times ‘the sitituation is better than that of the past.’
The other feature of ‘the beginning of a new state’ mentioned by Pan (2005) and Yu (2010) includes the use of adjectives or stative verbs as V1 in V-shang, such as hao-shang ‘get together’好上 or ai-shang ‘love’愛上. Hao3 ‘good’好 and ai4 ‘love’
愛 exhibit the states of the actions in (8b-c). The state is the result of the change. After
reading the poetry, the person loved the poetry, so ‘love’ becomes the result state of reading. Therefore, a state could be the result of an old state or be regarded as the beginning of a new state.
In terms of meanings, researchers classify V-shang into three categories. Each researcher observes a small part of V-shang and regards it as a new category. As a whole, previous studies try to exaplain various meanings of V-shang, but they show inconsistent points of view. Hence, V-shang needs a consistent framework to organize its complex extended meanings.
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2.2 Syntactic functions of shang
Syntactic functions show the status of shang in V-shang, based on the semantic factors. The previous studies have defined the functions of shang in V-shang. Fan (1991) categorizes V-shang into three patterns according to form and meaning:
directional, semi-directional, resultative, and stative. The types of shang in V-shang with different meanings should each be separately discussed. Shang1 conveys the proto meaning of the object movement. Shang2 presents a particular result from an action of the preceding verbs. Shang3 represents the accomplishment of an action.
The feature used to distinguish Shang2 and Shang3 is the volition of the activity of natural or unnatural force. Within Fan’s analysis, Shang1 and Shang2 contain concrete senses; however, on the other hand, shang3 exhibits an abstract sense with aspectual features. Each type of shang conveys different meanings which can denote their syntactic functions.
Hence, according to Fan’s analysis, generally, this study is going to present two sections below. The first section introduces the functions of V-shang determined by the content meaning and the functional meaning: resultative complement and verb particle. Then, because previous studies suggested that the aspect marker should be a
Hence, according to Fan’s analysis, generally, this study is going to present two sections below. The first section introduces the functions of V-shang determined by the content meaning and the functional meaning: resultative complement and verb particle. Then, because previous studies suggested that the aspect marker should be a