Chapter 3 Data Base, Theoretical Framework, and Methodology
3.3 Methodology
The example shows the necessity of separating each unique component in Mandarin. Meanwhile, based on the differences in grammatical behavior and collocational constraints as mentioned in the previous chapter, it is clear that the Direction markers are different from each other and each of them serves diverse functions between each other. Thus, it is worth further investigating the different conceptual distinctions of Direction markers.
3.3 Methodology
In order to give a distinct classification and clear-cut definition of each near-synonymous marker in Direction, there are five steps that are conducted in this study:
Step 1: Defining and Finding Direction Markers
To figure out what are included in Direction markers, first, the present study defines the distinct behavior of Direction comparing to other components in motion events. Based on the definition of Liu et al. (2012), a Direction marker introduces a spatial orientation. The uniqueness of Direction can be evidenced by a set of Direction markers such as wǎng 往 and xiàng 向 ‘facing towards’ that take a
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directional noun, such as dōng 東 /xī 西/nán 南/běi 北/qián 前/hòu 後/zuǒ 左/yòu 右/shàng 上/xià 下, or a specific directional reference, such as dà lĭ táng 大禮堂 (Liu et al. 2012). Thus, markers introducing an spatial orientation should be included in Direction.
Step 2: Collecting the Corpus Data
The corpus data is mainly collected from Sinica Corpus, Chinese Word Sketch, and Google Search to search for the target verbs.
Step 3: Observing and Comparing the Distributional Patterns in Direction Markers
In order to differentiate the core meaning of each Direction marker, the data were under inspection in their 1) distributional patterns, 2) grammatical functions, and 3) semantic range.
Step 4: Analyzing and Classifying the Direction Markers
By utilizing the findings based on the previous investigation, the distinction of each Direction marker is classified by a frame-based analysis adopted from Frame Semantics to figure out the core frame elements and defining pattern of each Direction marker.
The following section provides some further evidence observed from corpus
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data focusing on the distributional patterns of directional markers miàn 面, cháo 朝, wǎng 往, xiàng 向. The corpus data mainly come from Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese, Chinese Gigaword, and Google search. Some preliminary observation has been analyzed and examined in the next section.
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Chapter 4
Findings
This section provides the syntactic criteria for each Direction marker based on corpus data observations. As defined by Liu et al. (2012), ‘Direction refers to the spatial orientation with which the moving entity (the Figure) moves with respect to a referential object or in relation to the location of the speaker’. A pure Direction marker has to precede a directional NP, in order to highlight the actual Direction.
Therefore, nothing can interrupt the sequence between the Direction marker and the Directional NP because pure Direction markers require an immediately directional NP without any intervening element.
4.1 Distributional Patterns
markers such as wǎng 往 and xiàng 向 are normally followed by a directional noun, e.g., dōng 東 ‘east’, xī 西 ‘west’, nán 南 ‘south’, běi 北 ‘north’. This section focuses on discussing the distribution pattern of each Direction marker. The materials used for the observations and analyses made in the paper come mainly from Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese, Chinese Word Sketch and Google search.25
Based on the observations and analyses, four of the Direction markers are allowed to be followed by directional nouns. This uniqueness arouse my interests to figure out the four merkers miàn 面, cháo 朝, xiàng 向, and wǎng 往 since they are all required to be followed by directional nouns. The distributional patterns of miàn 面, cháo 朝, xiàng 向, and wǎng 往 can firstly be divided into three groups: 1) Direction markers used individually, 2) Direction markers used preverbally, and 3) Direction markers used postverbally. Examples are given in the following table:
Direction markers used individually
Table ( 3 ): Three groups for the distributional patterns for Direction
Many studies considered that cháo 朝, wǎng 往, and xiàng 向 belong to the same category. However, a closer look into corpus data suggests that cháo 朝 and
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miàn 面 share some similarities, while wǎng 往 and xiàng 向 share some others. For example, both wǎng 往 and xiàng 向 are permitted to follow Manner of motion such as pǎo 跑, fēi 飛, zǒu 走, etc. On the contrary, cháo 朝 and miàn 面 do not have such disposition. The observations and analyses do support the argument that miàn 面 and cháo 朝 are considered to be static-like while wǎng 往 and xiàng 向 tend to
Preverbal use of Direction Postverbal use of Direction ___ + Directional NP + Verb Verb + ___ + Directional NP
Miàn 面 ✔ ✘
Cháo 朝 ✔ ✘
Xiàng 向 ✔ ✔
Wǎng 往 ✔ ✔
Table ( 4 ): Distinction of preverbal vs. postverbal use of Direction markers
4.2 Collocational Tendency
4.2.1 Preverbal vs. postverbal use of Direction markers
According to the discussion in the previous section, these markers may vary in their distributional patterns. A preverbal structure is allowed to be used with four Direction markers miàn 面, cháo 朝, xiàng 向, and wǎng 往. However, only xiàng 向 and wǎng 往 are available to be used postverbally. The following
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‘Pigeons flied toward the sky as well.’
b. Manner Verb + 往/向 + NP (Postverbal structure) (13) 許多夏候鳥正展翅 [飛/verb] [向/Direction marker] [臺灣/ NP]
xǔ duō xià hòu niǎo zhèng zhǎn chì fēi xiàng tái wān Many summer migratory-bird fly toward Taiwan
‘Many migratory birds are flying toward Taiwan.’
Comparing the examples above, as exemplified in (13), the postverbal use in Direction markers does not allow miàn 面 and cháo 朝 to fit in the sentence.
Obviously, miàn 面 does not collocate with any motional verb in a sentence. As for cháo 朝, in the preverbal structure [Direction marker + NP + Manner Verb], the position of Direction marker is believed to be a coverb as many studies have indicated (Li and Thompson 1981, Huang 1974) since a Direction marker has to be followed by another verb in such structure. Since miàn 面, cháo 朝, xiàng 向, and wǎng 往 are all allowed in preverbal structure, as indicated by Li and Thompson (1981), they may be treated as coverbs. But only xiàng 向 and wǎng 往 can follow a Manner Verb such as fēi xiàng 飛向, fēi wǎng 飛往, etc., xiàng 向, and wǎng 往 in this construction may be considered as serial verb constructions. As Yin (2004) mentioned, coverbs are defined in order to explain a new group of words originated
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from either serial verb constructions or from other lexical verbs and grammaticalized into a new category—coverb. The core meaning referred to verb should first be identified in order to distinguish those similar markers in Direction. The following section discusses differences of each Direction marker in the two structures.
4.2.1.1 Preverbal use of Direction markers
According to Li and Thompson (1981), Direction markers in the preverbal use structure such as tā cháo nán bài 他朝南拜 ‘He worships facing south.’ is defined as a coverb. The use of miàn 面, cháo 朝, xiàng 向, and wǎng 往 as Direction markers does fit into such structure. Though they all mark a direction and are followed by a directional noun, they are nevertheless not the same semantically.
All these three Direction markers wǎng 往, cháo 朝, and xiàng 向 while modifying a specific direction, the meaning could be either facing or going toward.
To be more specific, cháo 朝 and xiàng 向 can be either motional or non-motional but wǎng 往 tends to be only used as a motional marker. For example, wǎng 往 can never be followed by a static verb (such as tǎng 躺, zuò 坐) without any movement. Wǎng 往 tends to collocate with motional Manner verbs such as zǒu 走, pǎo 跑, fēi 飛, etc. Examples are given below:
(14) 往車站的方向走
wǎng chē zhàn de fang xiàng zǒu WANG station DE direction walk
‘Go toward the direction of the station.’
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The position of wǎng 往 in the example above can be replaced by either cháo 朝 or xiàng 向 without changing the meaning or the structure of the sentences.
Comparing to miàn 面, the major difference is that miàn 面 always collocates with static body postures such as tǎng 躺, zhàn 站, zuò 坐, etc. as shown in the following examples in (15). And if miàn 面 is replaced by wǎng 往, then the whole sentence becomes rather odd.
(15) a. 凱洛琳側身面牆躺著 (Static)
kǎi luò lín cè shēn miàn qiáng tang zhe Caroline a-side face wall lie ASP
‘Caroline lies down and turns the body to face the wall.’
b. ?凱洛琳側身往牆躺著 (Dynamic)
kǎi luò lín cè shēn wǎng qiáng tang zhe Caroline a-side go-toward wall lie ASP
The only possibility that wǎng 往 can be used with a static body posture is zhàn 站 such as nǐ wǎng zuǒ biān zhàn 你往左邊站 ‘You move to left.’. Still, semantically it needs to involve a movement since it means that the subject nǐ 你
‘you’ should move toward left instead of simply face toward left.
From above comparison, of all the four markers modifying directions, even though they can all be followed by directional NPs, as mentioned before, only miàn 面 cannot collocate with motional verbs. Further evidences are given below with Deictic markers lái 來 or qù 去:
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(16) a. *面這邊來 miàn zhè biān lái Face here come
b. 颱風將朝台灣來 (Google, 2013,5,11) tái fēng jiāng cháo tái wān lái
Typhoon will toward Taiwan come
‘The typhoon will head toward Taiwan.’
c. 狼向這邊来了 (Google, 2013,5,11) láng xiàng zhè biān lái le
Wolf toward this-way come ASP
‘The wolf comes toward here.’
d. 大家往這邊來 (Google, 2013,5,11) dà jiā wǎng zhè biān lái
Everyone toward here come
‘Everyone comes toward here.’
The above examples again illustrate that the uniqueness of miàn 面 is in its static characteristics. It points out an orientation for the entity to face to the inherent landmark without any possibility to collocate with motional verbs. In this case, miàn 面 will not be further discussed since the behavior of miàn 面 do not fit into the motion event considered in this study.
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4.2.1.2 Postverbal use of Direction markers
The postverbal use of Direction markers only allows xiàng 向 and wǎng 往 to fit in this structure. According to the Deictic-incorporated Proto-motion Event Schema proposed by Liu et al. (2012), only Manner such as fēi 飛, pǎo 跑, etc. and [Route + Direction] such as sheng 升, tuì 退, etc. can be followed by Direction markers xiàng 向 and wǎng 往 in a postverbal use structure. Examples are provided as follows:
(17) 燕子俯身飛向屋簷
yàn zi fǔ shēn fēi xiàng wū yán Swallow bend fly XIANG eaves
‘The swallow flies toward the eaves.’
(18) 被迫退向海峽
bèi pò tuì xiàng hǎi xiá
Forced recede XIANG channel
‘(Someone) is forced to recede toward the channel.’
4.3 Collocational tendency between xiàng 向 and wǎng 往
The distinction between xiàng 向 and wǎng 往 has been a long-debated issue (Fang 2004, Xiao 2006, Chao 2002, etc) since they share so many similarities, for example, 1) both of them introduce a directional NP, 2) they are able to fit into both preverbal and postverbal use of Direction. And in many cases, xiàng 向 and
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wǎng 往 can be replaced by each other as the examples below show:
(19) 一轉身向山坡上方跑去
yì zhuǎn shēn xiàng shān pō shàng fang pǎo qù Turn XIANG mountain run Deictic
‘Turn around and run toward the mountain.’
(20) 我和同伴飛向臺灣
wǒ hé tong bàn fēi xiàng tái wān I and companion fly toward Taiwan
‘My companion and I fly toward Taiwan.’
However, though xiàng 向 can be replaced by wǎng 往 without changing any of the meaning, there are quite some distinct usages between xiàng 向 and wǎng 往 as demonstrated in the following examples:
(21) a. 往北 從南往北
wǎng běi cóng nán wǎng běi
WANG north From south WANG north
‘Toward the north.’ ‘From the south toward the north.’
b. 向北 *從南向北
xiàng běi cóng nán xiàng běi XIANG north From south XIANG north
‘Toward the north.’
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(22) a. 從理工系館往校本部的路上
cóng lǐ gong xì guan wǎng xiào běn bù de lù shàng
From Engineering-Department-building WANG campus DE road
‘The road from the Engineering Department building toward the campus.’
b. ?從理工系館向校本部的路上
cóng lǐ gong xì guan xiàng xiào běn bù de lù shàng
From Engineering-Department-building XIANG campus DE road
(23) a. 從德州開車往丹佛
cóng dé zhōu kāi chē wǎng dān fó From Texas drive-car WANG Denver
‘Driving car from Texas to Denver.’
b. ?從德州開車向丹佛
cóng dé zhōu kāi chē xiàng dān fó From Texas drive-car XIANG Denver
All these examples indicate that the Direction marker wǎng 往 not only can precede a directional NP, it also implies a possible route and thus could collocate with cóng 從 by modifying the source. However, xiàng 向 may not collocate with the source marker cóng 從, and this implies that the basic meaning of xiàng 向 does not include a route from the start point to the endpoint. More detailed comparison will be provided in chapter 5.
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4.4 Summary
In sum, it is found that the markers miàn 面, cháo 朝, xiàng 向, and wǎng 往 can be classified into two structures: 1) [面/朝/向/往 + NP + V], and 2) [V + 向/
往 + NP]. The one similarity they all share is that the NP they introduce can all be directional NPs. However, each is different syntactically and semantically. For example, 1) based on the corpus data, miàn 面 never collocates with any motional verb, 2) even though cháo 朝 does either collocate with motional verbs or non-motional verbs, the only permissible structure for cháo 朝 is the preverbal structure [朝 + NP + V], and 3) wǎng 往 implies a possible course enabling it to collocate with a source modifying marker cóng 從, while xiàng 向 may not be able to collocate with cóng 從. This indicates that wǎng 往 may imply a direction together with a route, which permit the sentences like cóng nán wǎng běi 從南往北. But xiàng 向 does not imply a route (from source to destination) thus xiàng 向 does not collocate with cóng 從.
In order to define and sort out what Direction markers are in relation to motion event, a frame-based taxonomy is adopted in the following chapter. And based on the hierarchical structure as established in Liu and Chiang (2008), the frame are hierarchically arranged as Archiframe > Primary frame > Basic frame >
Microframe.
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Chapter 5
Analysis
Firstly this chapter provides the copceptual schema of Direction markers from the Proto-motion Event Schema and thento be followed by detailed discussion on the similarities and differences between the synonymous set in Direction markers.
Section 5.1 demonstrates the differences of the four Direction markers conceptually.
Section 5.2 provides the syntactic and semantic comparisons. Section 5.3 deals with the lexical status scale of Direction markers. Section 5.4 incorporates the conceptual schema of self-initiated motion event into a frame-based analysis by adopting a frame-based hierarchical structure proposed from Liu and Chiang (2008).
5.1 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
Xiǎo niǎo yuè chū niǎo lóng fēi xiàng zì yóu tiān kōng