Chapter 1 Introduction
1.4 Organization of the Thesis
This paper is sequenced in such a way where the background information will be introduced in the first chapter, then followed by the review of the literature in the second chapter. The third chapter will illustrate the database, theoretical framework and methodology. The distributional patterns of the markers will be presented in the forth chapter, the findings of which are also what motivate this study.
The fifth chapter proposes a frame-based analysis to give a closer look into the near-synonymous Direction markers so as to be wrapped up by the last chapter which points out the theoretical limitations for future study.
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Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 Motion Event
The issue of motion event in Mandarin has been one of the focuses of modern linguistic discussion. According to the definition in FrameNet, it is defined as a situation where some entity (Theme) starts out in one place (Source) and stops at another place (Goal) to create a spatial route between the two places (Path).
However, numerous studies on motion event have studied this subject from plenty of perspectives. An earlier study by Talmy (2000) proposed that a language is either a satellite-framed language or a verb-framed language. Mandarin, in his point of view, is classified into a satellite-framed language. There are elements in motion event that can be separated into those within the domain of meaning and those within the domain of surface expression. Talmy argues that the basic motion event consists of four major components: Motion-Manner, Path, Figure, and Ground.
Chen and Guo (2009), adopting from Talmy’s work, provided another point of view of the combination from the semantic components in Mandarin:
(1) Manner: the way in which a figure carries out a motion
(2) Path: the trajectory over which a figure moves, typically with respect to another reference object (i.e., the ground)
(3) Deictic: path relative to the speaker
Each of these three components can stand alone or in combination with the
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other two elements. Thus, they also proposed the eight possible combinations of patterns with Motion, Path, and Deictic in Mandarin, which are Manner, Path, Deictic, Manner + Path, Manner + Deictic, Path + Deictic, Path + Path, Manner + Path + Deictic. Examples are shown and illustrated below:
Table ( 1 ): Eight possible combinations proposed by Chen and Guo (2009)
Still, a recent study proposed by Rappaport Hovav and Levin (2010) suggests that in the domain of motion events, there is a scale implied in the dimension of a distance, which is from the figure with respect to the ground. A scale consists of a set of contiguous locations forming a path and is instructed with a direction of movement at the same time. The following diagram as proposed by Rappaport Hovav and Levin (2010) classifies the English motion verbs based on the scale structure:
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Diagram ( 1 ): Scale structure proposed by Rappaport Hovav and Levin (2010)
However, as far as many related studies are concerned, motion in Mandarin is usually considered as a sequential pattern and thus is so-called serial verb construction. Lin (2011) stated that Mandarin allows two or more verbal morphemes to occur together in a sentence as a construction and is commonly expressed as multi-morpheme constructions. For example, in (1), the two verbal morphemes zǒu 走 and huí 回 occurs together to form the construction zǒu huí xué xiào 走回學校.
(1) 我一路茫然地走回學校 (Lin 2011)
wǒ yí lù máng rán de zǒu huí xué xiào I all-the-way vacantly walk back school
‘I walked back to school vacantly.’
In addition, in Liu et al. (2012), the traditional definition of ‘Path’ in many earlier studies is further discussed and separated into three components: Route (the contour of moving), Direction (spatial orientation), and Endpoint (final point of the contour). Liu proposes that a motion event may be conceptualized into a notion of motional contour or a way of journey. A motion event may consist of a chosen
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Manner, via a certain Route, in a given Direction, towards a targeted Endpoint and finally approaches the Destination (or Locus), possibly with a further specification of Deictic orientation. The definitions of components in the Proto-Motion Event Schema are illustrated as follows:
(1) Manner: the way the motion is carried out
(2) Route: the contour along which the motion progresses (3) Direction: the particular spatial orientation of the path (4) Endpoint: the projected final point of the path
(5) Deictic: specify the speaker-oriented perspective allowed in Mandarin
An old notion of ‘Path’ is thus distinguished, creating a new and independent meaning for Direction and Endpoint that can be realized individually in different Mandarin motion events.
2.2 Direction Markers
In the recent literatures, the definitions of Direction markers have been treated in many different ways. For example, as many studies have found, many scholars preferred to classify some Direction markers as prepositions (Liu 1996, Xu 1991, Feng 1999). Some others believed that some Direction markers are used as verbs since they believed that all the original meaning starts from verbs (Chao 1968, Wang 2004). Meanwhile, Li and Thompson (1981) provided another explanation for the different behavior of Direction markers as either prepositions or verbs. They are defined as coverbs. Similar to Li and Thompson (1981), in Lu (1999)’s analysis,
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cháo 朝, xiàng 向, and wǎng 往 are classified clearly into two categories. That is, they can all be either a verb or a preposition with different meanings and usages. In the category of verb, cháo 朝 is more like xiàng 向 which both means duì zhe 對著
‘to face toward’ while wǎng 往 is different from the two which means qù 去 ‘go’.
However, in the category of preposition, all of them tend to share the similar meaning which points out the direction for the movement and collocate with directional noun and locational noun that are used in front of the main verb. The following sections introduce the different point of views from scholars that take Direction markers in a different perspective including prepositions, coverbs, and verbs.
2.2.1 Prepositions
Many studies regard miàn 面 , cháo 朝 , xiàng 向 , and wǎng 往 as prepositions. Scholars believed that it is not easy to define prepositions since preposition may contain many different meanings in some cases. Some previous studies choose to take Direction markers as prepositions and provide some classifications based on the behaviors of those markers. First, Chao (1968) argued that cháo 朝 and xiàng 向 have the characteristics of both verb and preposition while wǎng 往 is the same as wàng 望 since wǎng 往 should be originated from wàng 望 in Mainland China Mandarin. In his analysis, he focused more on cháo 朝 and xiàng 向 in the chapter of prepositions in his book such as cháo nán zǒu 朝 南走 ‘walk toward south’, cháo hòu tóu kàn kàn 朝後頭看看 ‘look backward’, xiàng yòu kàn 向右看 ‘look right’, etc.
Second, morphemes denoting Direction may be regarded as prepositions as
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Liu et al. (1996) regards cháo 朝, xiàng 向 and wăng 往 as spatial prepositions.
One of the distinctions suggested by Liu is that prepositions are not allowed to be followed by aspectual markers. However, a closer look into corpus data suggests a different story. While *wăngzhe 往著 is rarely found, cháo 朝 and xiàng 向 with aspectual marker zhe 著 is found in data. What is more, [向 + 著 Aspect] is commonly found and semantically distinguishable from the use of xiàng 向 alone in marking a direction. It thus indicates that 朝, xiàng 向 and wăng 往, show distinct grammatical and semantic behavior.
Third, the functional differences of xiàng 向, wăng 往, and cháo 朝 as interpreted by Liu (2007) suggested that they are prepositions and are grammaticalized from verbs. In Liu’s point of view, xiàng 向, wăng 往, and cháo 朝 are a group of preposition modifying directions that are semantically distinguishable but still are connected with each other. In Mandarin, there are some permissible alternations between different directional markers as long as they are compatible in their meanings. For instance, xiàng 向, wăng 往, and cháo 朝 can be used as modifiers of motion verbs as illustrated in the following examples (Liu 2007):
(2) 默默地往前走 (Liu 2007)
mò mò de wǎng qián zǒu Silently WANG front walk
‘Go forward silently.’
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(3) 朝陳佐千身上細細地灑過了
cháo chén zuǒ qiān shēn shàng xì xì de sǎ guò le CHAO Chen-Zuoqian body carefully spray ASP.
‘Carefully sprayed toward Chen Zuoqian’s body.’
(4) 將他向天空扔去
jiāng tā xiàng tiān kōng rēng qù Jiang 3sg XIANG sky throw Deictic
‘Throw him toward the sky.’
The wǎng 往 , cháo 朝 , and xiàng 向 in sentences above can be substituted with each other as modifiers of motion verbs. However, only xiàng 向 and cháo 朝 can modify non-motion verbs but not wǎng 往. Examples are shown below (Liu 2007):
(5) 向上豎著 (Liu 2007)
xiàng shàng shù zhe XIANG up upright
‘Stand upright.’
(6) 朝著衛生間喊了一聲
cháo zhe wèi sheng jiān hǎn le yì sheng CHAO Asp. toilet yell Asp. sound
‘Yell toward the toilet.’
The two prepositions in the above sentences can also be substituted with
13 toward Chen Zuoqian’s body.’ may not be understood as a motion event. Still, the study in Liu (2007) pointed out the distinctions worth noticing between these two Direction markers.
Xu (1991) stated that there are five types of prepositions: 1. Temporal Preposition, 2. Locational Preposition, 3. Causal Preposition, 4. Manner Preposition, and 5. Primary and Secondary Preposition. cháo 朝, xiàng 向, and wǎng 往 are included in the second type. The second type of classification includes zài 在, cóng 從, dào 到, zhí 直, zhí dào 直到, dào dá 到達, shàng 上, xià 下, dǎ 打, dǎ cóng 打從, cháo 朝, cháo zhe 朝著, duì 對, duì zhe 對著, xiàng 向, xiàng zhe 向著, chōng 衝, shun 順, kào 靠, wǎng 往, wàng 望, tóu 投, yán 沿, jīng 經, jīng guò 經過, āi 挨, jiē 接, jiù 就, jiù zài 就在, gēn suí 跟隨, gēn cóng 跟從, suí cóng 隨 從, …etc. Second, Feng (1999) defined the function of a preposition as introducing a noun or a noun phrase. That is, a preposition is followed closely by a noun. He believed that prepositions share some characteristics of verb. For example, both prepositions and verbs convey actions and both prepositions and verbs carry objects.
Such characteristics led prepositions to be called as coverbs. However, Feng chose to simply use the behavior of prepositions and give prepositions four major classifications. Examples are given as follows:
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a. 目的、原因介詞 為、替、由於、因
b. 範圍、對象介詞 關於、對、至於、連、把、將、被、叫、讓、給、除、比 c. 時間、方位介詞 當在、自、從、自從、往、到、向、朝
d. 方法、手段介詞 用、拿、依照、按照、遵照、憑、通過、經過
Table ( 2 ): Four major classifications of prepositions proposed by Xu (1991)
Feng also believed that the differences between prepositions and verbs are, first, a preposition is not allowed to be with Aspectual markers le 了, zhe 著, guò 過;
and second, preposition cannot reduplicate by itself. The difficulty of defining a preposition and a verb as explained by Feng stated that if there is no other verb in a sentence, the preposition becomes a verb. For example, in (1b), the main verb is 去 while dào 到 becomes a preposition. While in (1a), there is no other main verb in the sentence, dào 到 thus becomes the main verb. Example (2) shows the same pattern.
(7) a. 我到過上海 (Verb) (Xu 1991)
wǒ dào guò shàng hǎi I arrive Asp. Shanghai
‘I have been to Shanghai.’
b. 我到上海去 (Preposition) wǒ dào shàng hǎi qù I arrive Shanghai Deictic
‘I went to Shanghai.’
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(8) a. 大門朝南 (Verb) dà mén cháo nán gate face south
‘The gate faces south.’
b. 大門朝南開 (Preposition) dà mén cháo nán kāi gate face south open
‘The gate opens facing south.’
However, not all the preposition can be transferred this way into a verb.
The explanation is thus not enough to define and demonstrate such similarity between some unique set of words.
2.2.2 Coverbs
Coverbs are group of words derived from verbs. As Yin (2004) stated that most of such grammaticalization observed in Mandarin are said to be one-directional from the major category—verb to the minor category—preposition. In order to define and distinguish these types of deverbalized words, a new term—coverb was created to refer to them. Even though Chao (1968) mentioned the usage of coverbs such as cháo 朝 in two structures, e.g., zhè wū zi cháo dōng 這屋子朝東 ‘the house faces east’ and cháo dōng zǒu 朝東走 ‘walk toward east’, the definition may still need to be clearly identified. The word coverb can be traced back to Defrancis (1946) as adopted by Chao. Li and Thompson (1981) defined Direction markers
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cháo 朝, xiàng 向, wǎng 往 as coverbs and gave a more detailed explanation to the word coverb. The function of a coverb to introduce a noun phrase and the phrase formed by the coverb plus the fact that the noun phrase precedes the main verb and follows the subject or the topic (Li and Thompson, 1981) is demonstrated here below:
Subject/topic coverb + noun phrase verb
Examples are provided as follows:
(9) 他朝東站著 (Li and Thompson 1981)
tā cháo dōng zhàn zhe 3sg face east stand DUR
‘He is standing facing east.’
(10) 他朝南拜 tā cháo nán bài
3sg facing south worship
‘He worships facing south.’
Coverbs, based on the definition of Li and Thompson (1981), function as prepositions. That is to say, a coverb and the following noun form a phrase to modify the verb of a sentence. This provides a clear distinction between coverbs and prepositions. The reason to call them coverbs rather than prepositions is that coverbs contain words that are partially like verbs and partially like prepositions. The characteristics of coverbs are inseparable with verbs and prepositions since some of the coverbs are derived from verbal usages (Li and Thompson 1981, Xing 2003,
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Wang 2004).
2.2.3 Verbs
Wang (2004) regarded wǎng 往 as a verb and compared the semantic behavior of wǎng 往 with other semantic-related verbs including synonyms such as zhī 之, shì 適, rú 如, and other antonyms in ancient Mandarin. She argued that wǎng 往 semantically encodes the meaning of dào…qù 到…去 ‘go and arrive at somewhere’. That is, the basic meaning of wǎng 往 includes an unspecified destination. What makes wǎng 往 different from other synonymous verbs is whether the destination is encoded in the verb. Thus, wǎng 往 does not need to be followed by any other destination since it has already been encoded in the verb wǎng 往. In addition, wǎng 往 emphasizes on the approach from the point near the speaker to the point away from the speaker, while rú 如 only emphasize on the destination that follows it.
2.3 Summary
It is believed that xiàng 向, cháo 朝, wǎng 往 have the usage of both verb
and preposition according to the above literatures. Following this consideration, the goal of the study aims to explore the following questions: 1) to identify the conceptual component of Direction markers in relation to the motion event in Mandarin; and 2) to account for the distributional patterns of Direction markers based on how they display semantically and syntactically. The following section introduces the data base used in this study, the theoretical frame work, and the methodology adopted in this paper.18
Chapter 3
Database, Framework and Methodology 3.1 Data Base
The data used in this study is mainly based on the corpus data from Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Mandarin Chinese (Sinica Corpus) (http://db1x.sinica.edu.tw/kiwi/mkiwi/). The second database is Chinese Word Sketch (http://wordsketch.ling.sinica.edu.tw/), a powerful database providing vast amount of data for researchers to investigate the grammatical behavior of each Direction marker. The third database is Google search (http://www.google.com.tw/) and it provides the most up-to-date data that can be found here.
3.2 Theoretical Framework
There are two theoretical frameworks that are adopted in this study. First, Frame Semantics as proposed by Fillmore and Atkins (1992). Second, Deictic-incorporated Proto-motion Event Schema as proposed by Liu et al. (2012).
The two theoretical frameworks are adopted to establish a frame-based and corpus-based analysis to the study of Direction markers in Mandarin.
3.2.1 Frame Semantics
Frame Semantics is a research that emphasizes the representation of a word.
Fillmore and Atkins (1992) propose that a word links to a categories of experiences.
That is to say, a word activates a semantic frame. The earliest notion of Frame
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Semantics can be found in Fillmore (1968). In Fillmore (1968), he proposed a case frame which means that the most important element of a verb is its semantic roles.
The famous example provided in Fillmore and Atkins (1992) is the Commercial Transaction Frame. For example, a commercial transaction frame evokes elements including a buyer, a seller, goods, and money. However, not all these elements are core. Verbs in this group of frame including buy, sell, pay, spend, etc. Different verbs activate different elements in a group. For instance, the verb buy emphasizes the buyers and the goods while sell focuses on the seller and the goods. The concept of Frame Semantics is that knowing a verb of frame means knowing what the elements to take place in a certain situation. That is to say, to describe a verb in an event thoroughly, it is a must to know its grammatical properties, elements of the frame, and which elements are necessary and which are not. Each frame has its own core frame elements and the profiled1 frame elements to help distinguish the syntactic behavior of each verb. By the observation of the syntactic-semantic correlations, the core meaning of each verb can thus be distinguished.
3.2.2 Deictic-Incorporated Proto-Motion Event Schema
In order to account for the previous concerns, the study mainly adopts the Proto-Motion Event Schema by Liu et al. (2012) as a cognitive basis in identifying the
1 Langacker (1988) proposes the conceptual different prominences in the same structure with different profiled portion. For example, the following diagram includes the base meaning of husband and wife, the profiled meaning of Husband, and the profiled meaning of Wife. As in the diagram, the base meaning of husband and wife is equally the same with a male and a female. The differences show in both Husband and Wife meanings. Male is profiled in Husband while female is profiled in Wife.
Base Husband Wife
Semantic Structures of HUSBAND and WIFE (Langacker 1988)
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semantic range of the directional markers miàn 面, cháo 朝, wǎng 往, xiàng 向 in the motion event of Mandarin. The diagram below shows the Proto-Motion Event Schema providing a closer look into the motion event in Mandarin:
Diagram ( 2 ): Deictic-incorporated proto-motion event schema in Mandarin proposed by Liu et al.
(2012)
Based on the diagram above, it is noticeable that the definition of ‘Path’
from Talmy (2000) and Chen and Guo (2009) is further dissected into three semantic components: Path, Direction, and Endpoint. For instance, in Mandarin, the three morpheme of the motion sequence yí xiàng dào 移向到 ‘move-toward-to’ thus belong to three separate components—Path, Direction, and Endpoint. However, yí 移, xiàng 向, and dào 到 would be classified into path verbs according to Talmy (2000) and Chen and Guo (2009)’s definitions. Following is an example taken from Liu et al. (2012) showing that there may be three independent semantic components in Mandarin motion event:
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(11) 小心翼翼地[移] Path [向] Direction [到] Endpoint 男警察那邊 Xiǎoxīnyìyì de yí xiàng dào nán jǐngchá nàbiān carefully de move face arrive male police there
‘(Someone) carefully moved towards and reached the policeman.’
The example shows the necessity of separating each unique component in Mandarin. Meanwhile, based on the differences in grammatical behavior and
The example shows the necessity of separating each unique component in Mandarin. Meanwhile, based on the differences in grammatical behavior and