5.1 The Distributional Patterns of the Mandarin Deictics of Motion with
5.1.1 Verbs in Group 1 with Deictics of Motion
For verbs in Group 1, they are grouped together because they all fit in both sequences “V+ Locational Noun +來/去” and “V+來/去+ Locational Noun”. Then, what might account for the differences of these verbs?
As mentioned earlier, when the Deictics of Motion precede the NPs of location, the NP can only be Loc-NPs, as the examples show:
(52) a. 只能停在大馬路上, 慢慢的走去古道, 走好遠才到古道口...
zhǐ néng tíng zài dàmǎlù shàng mànmànde zǒu-qù gǔdào zǒu hǎoyuǎn cái only MOD stop at road surface slowly walk-go old.trail walk so.long then dào gǔdàokǒu
arrive old.trail.entrance
‘(Somebody) could only park the car on the road and walked to the old trail slowly. It took a long way to the old trail entrance’
(Google 2012/12/11) b. 下班後跑去操場運動，
xiàbān hòu pǎo-qù cāochǎng yùndòng off.duty after run-go field exercise
‘(Somebody) ran to the field to exercise after work’
(Google 2012/12/11) c. 蟑螂會爬來樹上?
zhāngláng huì pá-lái shùshàng cockroach MOD crawl-come tree.top
‘Would cockroaches crawl onto the trees?’
(Google 2012/12/11) d. 茶杯自己滾去地上 chábēi zìjǐ gǔn-qù dìshàng
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tea.cup self roll-go ground
‘The tea cup rolled to the ground itself.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
e. 小朋友們...跳去彈簧床的另一邊了．
xiǎopéngyǒumen tiào-qù tánhuángchuáng de lìngyìbiān le children jump-go spring.bed DE other.side
‘Children jumped to the other side of the spring bed.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
f. 飛來空中的鳥棲息在樹枝上
fēi-lái kōngzhōng de niǎo qīxí zài shùzhīshàng fly-come sky DE bird rest at tree.branch.surface
‘Birds that flew to the sky rested on the tree branches.’
(Google 2012/12/11) g. 四名警員進去屋內，
sì míng jǐngyuán jìn-qù wūnèi four CL officer enter-go house.inside
‘Four police offivers entered the house.’
(Gigaword)
h. 可以趁著假期，出去戶外走走，
kěyǐ chèn zhe jiàqí chū-qù hùwài zǒuzǒu MOD take.advantage DUR vacation exit-go outdoor walk
‘(Somebody) could take advantages of the vacation and went outdoors to relax.’
(Gigaword)
i. 伊露莉喝了一杯啤酒之後上去二樓。
yīlòulì hē le yì bēi píjiǔ zhīhòu shàng-qù èrlóu NM drink ASP one CL beer after go.up-go second.floor
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‘After Illilu drank a glass of beer, she went up to the second floor.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
j. 我躡手躡腳下去地下室參觀。
wǒ nièshǒunièjiǎo xià-qù dìxiàshì cānguān 1SG quietly go.down-go basement visit
‘I went down to the basement quietly and looked around.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
k. 我剛回來老家了
wǒ gāng huí lái lǎojiā le 1SG just return-come home PRF
‘I just came back home.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
l. 我連忙跑過去，扶著老奶奶過來馬路。
wǒ liánmáng pǎo-guò-qù fú zhe lǎonǎinai guò-lái mǎlù I hurry run-pass-go hold DUR old.lady pass-come road
‘I hurried over to help the old lady cross the road.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
m. 我的眼淚落來水裡，沒有任何人看見。
wǒ de yǎnlèi luò-lái shuǐlǐ méiyǒu rènhé rén kànjiàn 1SG DE tear fall-come water no any person see
‘No one saw my tears fall into the water.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
On the other hand, when the Deictics of Motion follow the NPs with some motion verbs, it is also the case that the NPs can only be Loc-NPs, such as the examples below:
(53) a. 我們進屋內去吧！
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wǒmen jìn wūnèi qù ba 1PL enter house.inside go BA
‘Let’s go inside the house.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
b. 悶了一星期,又不能出戶外去...
mēn le yì xīngqí yòu bùnéng chū hùwài qù stuff ASP one week then MOD exit outdoor go
‘(Somebody) felt upset for a week and could not go outdoors.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
c. 懶的爬樓梯的朋友還可以偷個懶利用電梯上二樓去。
lǎnde pá lóutī de péngyǒu hái kěyǐ tōugelǎn lìyòng diàntī shàng èrlóu lazy climb stair DE friend still MOD lazy use elevator go.up second.floor qù
go
‘People who were too lazy to take the stairs could use the elevator to go up to the second floor.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
d. 現在，我們下地下室去！
xiànzài wǒmen xià dìxiàshì qù now 1PL go.down basement go
‘Now let’s go down to the basement.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
e. 寶寶滿月回老家來了，
bǎobao mǎnyuè huí lǎojiā lái le baby full.moon return home come PRF
‘The baby came home when s/he was one month old.’
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(Google 2012/12/11)
f. 或許真有什麼急事需要立即過馬路去，
huòxǔ zhēn yǒu shénme jíshì xūyào lìjí guò mǎlù qù maybe really have some immergency need instantly pass road go
‘Perhaps (Somebody) was really urgent to cross the road right away.’
(Google 2012/12/11) g. 沒有海盜落水裡來
méiyǒu hǎidào luò shuǐlǐ lái no pirate fall water come
‘No pirates fall into the water.’
(Sinica Corpus)
The NPs in the above sentences are Loc-NPs denoting the destination of the path.
However, when the Deictics of Motion follow the NPs with the other motion verbs from Group 1, such as those in the following examples, the NPs can be either Ground NPs or Loc-NPs.
(54) a. 大家都把車停在這走古道去了 (Ground/ Loc-NP) dàjiā dōu bǎ chē tíng zài zhè zǒu gǔdào qù le
everybody all BA car stop at here walk old.trail go PRF
‘Everybody parked their cars here and went walking at the old trail / went to the old trail.’
(Google 2013/03/22)
b. 趕快把 paper 讀完，然後跑操場去~ (Ground/ Loc-NP) gǎnkuài bǎ paper dúwán ránhòu pǎo cāochǎng qù hurry BA paper read.finish then run field go
‘I finished the paper quickly and then went running at the field/ran to the field.’
(Google 2013/03/22)
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c. 眼睛雖小明又亮，能爬樹來能上牆， (Ground/ Loc-NP)
yǎnjīng suī xiǎo míng yòu liàng néng pá shù lái néng shàng eye though small bright and glittering MOD climb tree come MOD climb qiáng
wall
‘(Something) had small bright eyes and could climb (to) trees and walls.’
(Google 2013/03/22)
d. 孩子先滾到沙發上，再翻個身滾地上來 ~ (Ground/ Loc-NP) háizi xiān gǔn-dào shāfā shàng zài fān ge shēn gǔn dìshàng lái child first roll-arrive sofa surface then turn CL body roll ground come
‘The child rolled on to the sofa first and then rolled on(to) the ground.’
(Google 2013/03/22)
e. 我去跳彈簧床去~別攔我~~ (Ground/ Loc-NP) wǒ qù tiào tánhuángchuáng qù bié lán wǒ
1 SG go jump spring.bed go not stop 1SG
‘I went jumping on/jumped to the spring bed and nobody should stop me.’
(Google 2013/03/22)
f. 你帶首長飛空中去， (Ground/ Loc-NP) nǐ dài shǒuzhǎng fēi kōngzhōng qù
2SG take chairman fly sky go
‘You flew the chairman in/to the sky.’
(Google 2013/03/22)
To show that these NPs are able to specify Ground, we can add a duration of time to the sentence to show that the activity goes on at the same place for a period of time.
(55) a. 大家走古道去，走了一個小時
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dàjiā zǒu gǔdào qù zǒu le yí ge xiǎoshí everybody walk old.trail go walk ASP one CL hour
‘Everybody went walking at the old trail for an hour.’
b. 大家跑操場去，跑了一個小時
dàjiā pǎo cāochǎng qù pǎo le yí ge xiǎoshí everybody run field go run ASP one CL hour
‘Everybody ran at the field for an hour.’
c. 孩子爬樹來，爬了一個小時
háizi pá shù lái pá le yí ge xiǎoshí child climb tree come climb ASP one CL hour
‘The child climbed the tree for an hour.’
d. 孩子滾地上來，滾了一個小時
háizi gǔn dì lái gǔn le yí ge xiǎoshí child roll gound come roll ASP one CL hour
‘The child rolled on the ground for an hour.’
e. 我跳彈簧床去，跳了一個小時
wǒ tiào tánhuángchuáng qù tiào le yí ge xiǎoshí 1SG jump spring.bed go jump ASP one CL hour
‘I jumped on the spring bed for an hour.’
f. 你飛空中去，飛了一個小時
nǐ fēi kōngzhōng qù fēi le yí ge xiǎoshí
60
2SG fly sky go fly ASP one CL hour
‘You flew in the sky for an hour.’
The grammaticality of the sentences above shows that these NPs can also specify Ground.
The reson why the locational NPs show the dual interpretation of Ground NPs and Loc-NPs lies in the different semantic profiling of the verbs. To account for the observation, we adopt the Proto-Motion Event Schema (PMS) by Liu et al. (2012) as a cognitive basis in identifying the semantic components in lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去
‘go’ and other self-motion verbs. Mandarin motion verbs in motion events may encode one or several semantic components identified. This schema provided a framework to capture the semantic-to-morphological mapping relation of motion verbs in Mandarin:
Figure 7. The Proto-Motion Event Schema in Mandarin
According to Liu et al. (2012), the verbs mentioned above are classified into different categories based on their semantic components. Verbs, such as 走 ‘walk’,
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pǎo 跑 ‘run’ , pá 爬 ‘crawl’ , gǔn 滾 ‘roll’ , tiào 跳 ‘jump’ , fēi 飛 ‘fly’, belong to Manner verbs of Motion, while verbs, such as guò 過 ‘pass’ , jìn 進 ‘enter’ , chū 出 ‘exit’ , shàng 上 ‘go up’ , xià 下 ‘go down’ , huí 回 ‘return’, luò 落 ‘fall’, belong to Path verbs. Each profiles different semantic components. The following table shows the distribution:
Figure 8. Manner Verbs vs. Path Verbs with the NPs
Since Endpoint-encoded path verbs, such as jìn 進 ‘enter’ , chū 出 ‘exit’ , shàng 上 ‘go up’ , xià 下 ‘go down’ , huí 回 ‘return’, require an Endpoint, they must be followed by a Loc-NP or a Deictic as a path delimiter. Therefore, they cannot take Ground, which cannot serve as a path delimiter.
For the Manner verbs do not encode any components within Path, they do not necessarily take a Loc-NP to specify the destination of a motion. Therefore, the manner verbs can take either a Ground NP or a Loc-NP.
As for verbs guò 過 ‘pass’ and luò 落 ‘fall’, they have the similar feature with
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the Path verbs above, that is, they have an implied endpoint. For the verb guò 過
‘pass’, adding the aspect marker -le 了 to it denotes the completion of the motion and suggests that qiáo 橋 ‘bridge’ is the endpoint of the path, such as in (56). Compared to the pure Route marker jīng 經 ‘pass’ in (57), guò 過 ‘pass’ is far more bounded in nature.
(56) 一隻兔子叼著鑰匙過了橋，
yì zhī tùzi diāo zhe yàoshi guò le qiáo one CL rabbit bite DUR key pass ASP bridge
‘A rabbit crossed the bridge with a key in its mouth.’
(57) *一隻兔子叼著鑰匙經了橋，
yì zhī tùzi diāo zhe yàoshi jīng le qiáo one CL rabbit bite DUR key pass ASP bridge
Though guò 過 ‘pass’ can be used as the meaning of passing through an intermediate point to the destination, such as guò qiáo dào duìàn 過橋到對岸 ‘pass the bridge to the other shore’, we can not deny that guò 過 ‘pass’ can also specify an endpoint where the motion ends.
On the other hand, luò 落 ‘fall’ can also imply the notion of endpoint. For example, we can say luò shuǐ 落水 ‘fall into water’or luò dì 落地 ‘fall onto a ground’, which means that someone or something falls into the water or onto the ground. shuǐ 水 ‘water’ and dì 地 ‘ground’ here obviously mean the destination of the motion. Though the Loc-NPs that luò 落 ‘fall’ can take are mostly nonreferring and quite restricted, we can not deny that luò 落 ‘fall’ is able to specify the endpoint of a path.
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