國立交通大學
外國語文學系外國文學與語言學碩士班
碩士論文
構詞語序與語意範疇:
指示位移詞與移動動詞的互動關係
The Morphological Sequence and Semantic Range:
Deictic Referencing in Motion Events
研 究 生: 陳俞汶
指導教授: 劉美君 教授
構詞語序與語意範疇: 指示位移詞與移動動詞的互動關係
The Morphological Sequence and Semantic Range:
Deictic Referencing in Motion Events
研 究 生: 陳俞汶 Student: Yuwen Chen
指導教授: 劉美君 Advisor: Meichun Liu
國立交通大學
外國語文學系外國文學與語言學碩士班
碩士論文
A Thesis
Submitted to Graduate Institute of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics
College of Humanity and Social Science
National Chiao Tung University
in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Master of Arts
July 2013
Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China
中 華 民 國 一 〇 二 年 七 月
i 構詞語序與語意範疇: 指示位移詞與移動動詞的互動關係 學生：陳俞汶 指導教授：劉美君 外國語文學系外國文學與語言學碩士班 摘要 本研究以整合詞彙語意與語序的移動事件概念基模為本，探討指示位移詞與 移動動詞的互動關係。本文繼承劉美君教授及其團隊所提出的一個典型移動事件 的認知架構，用以分析、解釋並對移動動詞内部隱含之語意進行分類。此架構提 供從上而下探究移動動詞之認知基礎，我們也進一步從下至上檢視語料庫顯示之 詞彙搭配關係是否與之配合。本研究藉由構詞語序與語意範疇分析中文移動動詞 與指示位移詞的序列限制，藉以更加明瞭指示位移詞在移動事件中的語意特徵。
另 外 ， 追 循 Fillmore 和 Atkins (1992) 所 提 出 的 框 架 語 意 理 論 (Frame Semantics)及 Liu 和 Chiang (2008) 提出的「中文動詞語意網」之架構，本研究也 對中文指示位移詞與移動動詞的關係進一步做階層性的分類。藉由觀察中文指示 位移詞在實際語料中所呈現的認知概念基模、語法表現、及語意特徵等等，將其 由上往下分入「主框架 (Archiframe)」、「首要框架 (Primary frame)」、以及「基 本框架 (Basic frame)」之中。 綜合以上，本研究深入探討中文移動動詞與指示位移詞的互動關係，藉由移 動事件之認知基礎以及語料庫顯示之詞彙搭配關係，進一步闡明指示位移詞在移 動事件中的語意特徵。過去的研究並未對移動事件中不同位置的指示位移詞的語 意多加著墨。本研究特別提出指示位移詞在不同的語序之中有不同的語意特徵， 而不同位置的指示位移詞出現的語境也不盡相同。本研究的成果藉由語法位置與 語意關係的互動，顯示語言形式與語意的搭配關係。 關鍵字：中文移動動詞、指示位移詞、構詞語序、語意範疇、框架語意
ii
The Morphological Sequence and Semantic Range:
Deictic Referencing in Motion Events
Student: Yu-wen Chen Advisor: Dr. Mei-chun Liu
Graduate Institute of Foreign literatures and Linguistics
National Chiao Tung University
Abstract
This paper explores the issues of the morphological sequence and semantic range of deictic referencing in motion events. Based on the Deictic-Incorporated Proto-Motion Event Schema in Mandarin proposed in Liu et al. (2012), we aim to provide a top-down analysis of the conceptual structure of motion with Deictics of Motion and a bottom-up examination of corpus-based collocations. By probing into the proto-motion event with Deictics of Motion, the study ultimately offers an account of the sequencing of Mandarin motion verbs with Deictics of Motion and the possible ranges of deictic meaning.
The Deictics of Motion are also analyzed with a frame-based taxonomy, following the classificational scheme established in Liu and Chiang (2008) with an extendable hierarchy of semantic scopes: Archiframe > Primary frame > Basic frame > Microframe.
Given the analysis above, we investigate the interaction between Mandarin motion verbs and Deictic of Motion. This study manifests the semantic features of Deictic of Motion by looking at the corpus-based collocations with conceptual structure of motion with Deictics of Motion. Since the semantic features of Deictic of Motion in different positions with motion verbs are not fully discussed in previous
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studies, we focus on the Deictic of Motion in different positions, namely Pre-Loc Deictic of Motion vs. Post-Loc Deictic of Motion. They show many distinctions in their semantic features and in contexts. Hopefully, this research will contribute to the correlation between form and meaning.
Keywords: Mandarin Motion Verbs, Deictic of Motion, Morphological Sequence,
iv 致謝 在交大的日子，轉眼間已經進入倒數的階段。特別感謝我的指導教授劉美君 老師。在每一次星期五的會議中，我都獲益良多。不論是討論自己的題目，或是 研究別的議題，其實都是在訓練自己語言分析的能力及獨立思考的精神。我非常 感謝老師在學術的鼓勵與指導，以及在日常生活中對我們的關懷。老師不只是我 們的老師，更像是一位媽媽，真心的希望我們進步。 特別感謝新竹教育大學的黃漢君老師以及鄭縈老師。謝謝你們不厭其煩地指 導我們，給予我們寶貴的建議。特別是黃漢君老師，從大學時期就照顧我以及幸 珊到現在，我們實在是非常幸運的孩子。此外，我也要感謝就讀期間所有教導過 我的老師們，劉辰生老師、林若望老師、許慧娟老師、賴郁雯老師、廖秀真老師、 潘荷仙老師、以及曹逢甫老師。謝謝你們費心準備這些精彩豐富的語言學課程， 讓我的修課生涯過得非常充實。此外，我也非常感謝各研討會中給予我意見的教 授學者們。謝謝你們寶貴的學術分享。 衷心感謝佳音學姊平常的照顧。學姊的存在如同是大姊姊一般，給我們很棒 的建議，也不忘在我們口試前不斷地鼓勵我們。謝謝辛苦的系辦助理思怡和佩吟， 不斷地遭受到我們的騷擾，還非常有耐心地為我們解決問題，真的真的非常感謝。 還有 304 夥伴們：感謝幸珊總是在我想破頭想不出個所以然的時候，給我一盞明 燈。感謝瑋芩總是非常溫柔隨和的幫忙大家。感謝孝勇總是非常細心的提點我們 該注意的事情，以及很熱心地給予很多很多的幫助。感謝大好人書平總是非常溫 柔又熱心的幫助大家以及為大家提供很多盞明燈！還有負責辛苦的 tagging 工作 的睿良、好久不見但一見如故的阿湯、總是帶來青春有活力的笑聲的學弟妹韵庭、 宛儀、懿方，謝謝你們的陪伴與支持。 最後，要感謝我生命中最重要的家人：爸爸陳滋鈞、媽媽蘇美琴、以及哥哥 陳力雍，謝謝你們的支持與鼓勵。還有一直陪伴我的好朋友: 陳宣蓓、陳韋伶、 林昱劭、莊訓齊、陳巧柔、徐嘉妤。以及我一生中最最要好的朋友: 賴宗岳，謝 謝你們的支持。沒有你們就沒有今天的我。
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Table of Contents
Chinese abstract……….………….…………i English abstract……….…...………..ii Acknowledgements………...iv Table of Contents………....v List of Tables………vii List of Figures……….viii Chapter 1 ... 1 1.1 The Background ... 1 1.2 The Issue ... 21.3 Scope and Goal ... 6
1.4 Organization of the Thesis ... 7
Chapter 2 ... 8
2.1 The Motion Event ... 8
2.2 Deictic Verbs ... 9
2.3 Deictic Complements ... 11
2.4 Deictic Morphemes in the Scale Structure ... 13
2.5 The Alternation of Deictic of Motion and Locative NPs ... 14
2.6 The Sequencing of Deictic Complements, Locative NPs, and Self-motion Verbs ... 16
2.7 The Semantic Roles of the Locative NPs after Deictic Complements ... 18
Chapter 3 ... 20
3.1 Database ... 20
3.2 Theoretical Framework ... 20
3.2.1 Frame Semantics ... 20
3.2.2 Lexicalization Patterns ... 21
3.2.3 Integration of Verb-external and Verb-internal Approaches ... 21
3.3 Methodology ... 22
Chapter 4 ... 26
4.1 Corpus Observations of Deictics of Motion ... 26
4.2 The Commonly-found Sequence “V+來/去+ Locational Noun” ... 31
4.3 The Sequential Constraints of Deictics of Motion with Motion Verbs ... 37
4.4 The Sequential Constraints of Deictics of Motion with NPs of Location ... 39
4.4.1 Endpoint-denoting Loc-NPs ... 40
4.4.2 Ground ... 43
4.4.3 Route and Directional Landmarks ... 45
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4.4.5 Summary ... 50
Chapter 5 ... 52
5.1 The Distributional Patterns of the Mandarin Deictics of Motion with Different Sequence of Motion ... 52
5.1.1 Verbs in Group 1 with Deictics of Motion ... 53
5.1.2 Verbs in Group 2 with Deictics of Motion ... 63
5.1.3 Verbs in Group 3 with Deictics of Motion ... 67
5.1.4 Summary ... 69
5.2 The Syntactic and Semantic Constraints on NPs of Location and Deictic Marking ... 71
5.3 Semantic Prominence in the Interpretation of Locative Role: the Case of chū-lái and chū-qù ... 79
5.4 A Frame-based Analysis of Mandarin Deictic of Motion ... 82
5.4.1 Conceptual Schema of Self-initiated Motion Archiframe ... 82
5.4.2 The Hierarchical Structure of the Frame ... 84
5.4.2.1 Layer 1: Archiframe (Self-initiated Motion frame) ... 85
5.4.2.2 Layer 2: Primary Frame (Deictic Frame) ... 87
5.4.2.3 Layer 3: Basic Frame ... 89
5.4.2.3.1 Manner+Deictic Frame ... 90
5.4.2.3.2 Path+Deictic Frame ... 90
5.4.2.3.3 Deictic+ dào 到 ‘arrive’ Frame ... 91
5.4.3 Overview of the Frames ... 92
5.5 Summary ... 96 Chapter 6 ... 97 6.1 Conclusion ... 97 6.2 Future Research ... 98 References ... 99 Web Sources ... 103
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List of Tables
Table 1. Mandarin twofold Path Satellites ... 13
Table 2. Semantic Roles of the object Ground NP following Path verbs ... 18
Table 3. Sentence Patterns of Deictics of Motion ... 27
Table 4. Distributional constraints of 來/去 with motion verbs ... 38
Table 5. The Role of the NPs Following Verbs of Group 1 ... 39
Table 6. Mandarin Deictics of Motion with Different Categories of Motion Verbs ... 70
Table 7. Semantic Roles of Loc-NPs following 出/來/去 ... 79
Table 8. Schematic Representations of chū-lái +NP and chū-qù+NP ... 80
viii
List of Figures
Figure 1. Four-way classification of English motion verbs ... 14
Figure 2. The schema of Deictic ... 17
Figure 3. The Deictic-incorporated Proto-Motion Event Schema ... 18
Figure 4. Sub-motion events vs. sub-motion morphemes ... 21
Figure 5. The Proto-motion Event Schema in Mandarin ... 22
Figure 6. Deictic-Incorporated Proto-Motion Event Schema in Mandarin ... 27
Figure 7. The Proto-Motion Event Schema in Mandarin... 60
Figure 8. Manner Verbs vs. Path Verbs with the NPs ... 61
Figure 9. Semantic Components within Path and the Locational Nouns that Follow . 64 Figure 10. The Illustration of *電梯升上去到屋頂來 ... 74
Figure 11. The Illustration of 電梯升上來到屋頂來 ... 74
Figure 12. The Illustration of 電梯升上來到屋頂去 ... 75
Figure 13. The Illustration of 電梯升上去到屋頂去 ... 75
Figure 14. Conceptual Schema of Self-initiated Motion ... 84
Figure 15. The Hierarchical Structures of the Frames ... 85
1
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 The Background
Motion is one of the fundamental and basic cognitive concepts which constitute daily events for human. The concept of motion is widely realized to a variety of spatial activities and also metaphorically extended to non-spatial relations. Some famous studies on motion events include conceptual structure (Langacker 1987), event structure (Jackendoff 1993), typological classification (Talmy 1985, Slobin 2004), lexicalization patterns (Talmy 2000), and scalar structure (Rappaport Hovav and Levin 2010), showing that the issue of motion events has taken an important place in the past decades.
To approach the typological classification of languages, Mandarin Chinese was categorized as a satellite-framed language based on the two-way classification by Talmy (2000). However, Tai (2003) found that Chinese presents a problem for Talmy’s typological classification of motion verbs since it appears to be treated as a satellite-framed as well as verb-framed language. Tai indicated that Chinese owns action-result compound in which V1 conflates Motion and Co-event while V2 conflates Motion and Path. Tai argued that V2 in Chinese action-result compound is the center of predication and therefore better treated as a main verb. To be more specific, Slobin (2004) has investigated the lexicalization patterns in Mandarin and proposed the third type of classification to better accommodate Mandarin motion events. He has indicated that Mandarin belongs to the equipollently-framed languages where both components Manner and Path are equally encoded in verbs in a given serial verb construction of motion. In addition to Manner and Path, Chen and Guo
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(2009) proposed that the serial verb construction normally allows the order of Manner + Path + Deictic. Moreover, to further analyze the component of Deictic, Lin (2011) suggested that, under the mechanism of the scalar structure from Rappaport Hovav and Levin (2010), the deictic morphemes in Mandarin profile the boundedness and duration of a scale. In addition to the internal features of the deictic components, the incorporation of the Deictics of Motion into the serial verb construction is also discussed in Liu et al. (2012), where several conceptual components lexicalized in Mandarin motion construction has been identified to provide a fine-grained analysis.
1.2 The Issue
In Liu et al. (2012), it is proposed that when the Deictic of Motion co-occurs with a Loc-NP, it can precede or follow the Loc-NP, as the examples below show:
(1) a. 回 [來/去]Deictic [學校]Loc-NP
huí lái/qù xuéxiào return come/go school ‘come/go back to school’ b. 回 [學校]Loc-NP [來/去]Deictic
huí xuéxiào lái/qù return school come/go ‘come/go back to school’
Besides the different positions that lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ can fit in, some distributional constraints are also observed in the following examples. Some verbs allow the Deictics of Motion lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ to occur either before or after the Loc-NP, as in (2), while other verbs only allow lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ to appear after the Loc-NP as in (3). There are also cases that prefer lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ to precede the Loc-NP as in (4):
3 (2) V+ Loc-NP +來/去 & V+來/去+ Loc-NP
a. 它跳桌上来了！
tā tiào zhuōshàng lái le 3SG jump table.top come PRF ‘It jumped onto the table.’
(Google 2012/10/08)
b. RIO 喜歡跳來桌上看我打電腦，
RIO xǐhuān tiào-lái zhuōshàng kàn wǒ dǎ diànnǎo NM like jump-come table.top watch 1SG play computer ‘RIO likes to jump onto the table to watch me play the computer.’ (Google 2012/10/08)
c. 寒風夾雪撲進門來，
hánfēng jiá xuě pū-jìn mén lái cold-wind bring snow flap-enter door come ‘The cold wind bring the snow into the house.’ (Sinica Corpus)
d. 外國資本家可以堂而皇之進來大陸，
wàiguó zīběnjiā kěyǐ tangérhuángzhī jìn-lái dàlù foreign capitalist MOD make.no.secret enter-come mainland
‘Foreign capitalists can make no secret of their entering into the mainland.’ (Sinica Corpus)
(3) V+ Loc-NP +來/去 vs. *V+來/去+ Loc-NP a. 我到中國來已經快一年了，
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1SG arrive China come already almost one year PRF ‘I have come to China for almost a year.’
(Sinica Corpus) b. *到來/去中國
dào-lái/qù zhōngguó arrive-come/go China
c. 你不往熱鬧流行的地方去，就沒有機會上電視。
nǐ bù wǎng rènào liúxíng de dìfang qù jiù méi you NEG toward bustling popular REL place go then NEG yǒu jīhuì shàng diànshì
have chance up TV
‘If you don’t go to bustling and popular places, you won’t have a chance to show up on TV programs.’
(Sinica Corpus)
d. *往來/去熱鬧流行的地方
wǎng-lái/qù rènào liúxíng de dìfang toward-come/go bustling popular REL place (4) ?V+ Loc-NP +來/去 vs. V+來/去+ Loc-NP
a. 其中一次單車的飛起來降來地面後，我單車的後胎又爆了。 qízhōng yí cì dānchē de fēiqǐlái jiàng-lái dìmiàn
among one time bicycle GEN fly.up.come descend-come ground hòu wǒ dānchē de hòutāi yòu bào le
after 1SG bicycle GEN back.tire again burst PRF
‘Once, after my bicycle flew up and landed, its tire on the back burst again.’ (Google 2012/12/11)
5 jiàng dìmiàn lái/qù
descend ground come/go
c. 氫氣球用細線牽好，用它的上升力把禮物吊在氣球上，升去 2 樓。 qīng qìqiú yòng xì xiàn qiān hǎo yòng tā de
hydrogen balloon use thin thread tie solid use 3SG NOM shàngshēnglì bǎ lǐwù diào zài qìqiú shàng shēng-qù èrlóu rise.ascend.force BA gift hang ZAI balloon above ascend-go two.floor
‘Tie the hydrogen balloon with a thin thread and hang the gift on it, so that its buoyance can take the gift to the second floor.’
(Google 2012/12/11) d. ?升 2 樓來/去
shēng èrlóu lái/qù ascend two.floor come/go
In sum, there are two basic sentence patterns in the above examples: “V+ Loc-NP +來/去” and “V+來/去+ Loc-NP”. The difference of the patterns lies in the position of the Deictics of Motion. As we can see, lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ can precede or follow the Loc-NP. Some motion verbs such as tiào 跳 ‘jump’ and jìn 進 ‘enter’ fit in both positions, while other motion verbs do not. Verbs such as dào 到 ‘arrive’ and rù 入 ‘enter’ are incompatible with lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ following them immediately, and those such as jiàng 降 ‘descend’ and shēng 升 ‘ascend’ are rarely found in the sentence pattern “V+ Loc-NP +來/去”.
From the observations above, there are still some issues to be further investigated:
1) What are the distributional patterns of the Mandarin Deictics of Motion lái
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2) What are the syntactic and semantic constraints on deictic marking in terms of sequence principles and semantic compatibility?
3) What are the preferred motion sequences with deictic marking? And why?
To account for these issues, this study focuses on the interaction between Mandarin Deictics of Motion and self-motion verbs, attempting to provide a detailed analysis on the sequences.
1.3 Scope and Goal
Within the research, sequences of “V+ Loc-NP +來/去” and “V+來/去+ Loc-NP” will be discussed. In terms of the verbs, we focus on self-initiated motion verbs for the usages of these motion verbs are simpler and involve less participant roles that might complicate the issues we are going to investigate. However, it is highly probable that the analysis can apply to that of other motion verbs in these sequences for future study.
As for the deictic elements lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’, they are used to specify many meanings in real use, such as directional meanings and resultative meanings. Nevertheless, they are limited to the directional meanings in this research, given that the research focuses on the deictic marking in self-initiated motion events. Moreover, the usage of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ preceding manner verbs, such as wǒmen lái/qù pǎobù 我們來/去跑步 ‘let’s go running’, is not included in the research.
In addition, for the Loc-NP here, it is actually an abbreviation of the Locative NP, referring to the destination of a path. However, not all NPs of location we are going to discuss are Loc-NPs. Therefore, we will change the Loc-NP into Locational nouns when necessary.
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distributional patterns and constraints of the Deictics of Motion with self-motion verbs and locational NPs. This study may lead to a better understanding of the semantic range of the Mandarin Deictics of Motion.
1.4 Organization of the Thesis
The thesis is organized as follows: Chapter 1 is the general introduction of the study. Chapter 2 reviews previous works related to studies on the notion of deictic, the sequence of deictic, locational nouns and motion verbs, and semantic roles of the locational nouns after deictic. Chapter 3 describes the database, theoretical framework and methodology applied in this study. Chapter 4 presents the findings. Chapter 5 proposes an analysis of deictic marking in motion events and a frame-based analysis of Mandarin Deictics of Motion. Lastly, Chapter 6 concludes the study and suggests further research topics.
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Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 The Motion Event
Motion is one of the fundamental domains in human experience. There are two approaches to investigate a motion event. First, studies on lexicalization patterns (e.g., Talmy 2000) and syntax-to-semantics alternation (e.g., Levin 1993, Rappaport Hovav and Levin 2010) look for the semantic components lexicalized in verbs of motion, trying to explore verb-internal lexical features. On the other hand, studies on semantic frames (c.f. Fillmore and Atkins 1992) attempt to identify the frame-specific elements coexisting in a motion event, i.e., verb-external participant roles.
It is proposed in Talmy (2000) that the basic motion event consists of four major components: an object (the Figure) moving with respect to another object (the Ground) along a path (Path) with the motional act Move, which is normally combined with Manner, the way the Figure object moves. The following two examples are given to illustrate these basic semantic components:
(5) a. English:
The rock slid down the hill. (Talmy 2000:28)
[Figure] [Move+Manner] [Path] [Ground]
b. Spanish:
La botella entró en la cueva (flotando). (Talmy 1985:69)
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The above examples show that the four major components are universal in describing motion events.
Besides Talmy’s research, there may be another approach to find out more lexical meanings. Fillmore and Atkins (1992) provided a frame-based approach in which ‘a word’s meaning can be understood only with reference to a structured background of experience, beliefs, or practices, constituting a kind of conceptual prerequisite for understanding the meaning.’ In their view, a verb evokes a semantic frame, in which the semantics of the verb is complemented with the participant roles related. The frame-evoking verb is semantically specified with a set of core participant roles. In the current Frame Semantics framework, motion is treated as an abstract and general frame. The motion frame specifies that “some entity (Theme) starts out in one place (Source) and ends up in some other place (Goal), having covered some space between the two (Path).” Thus, the three semantic roles Source, Path, and Goal, together with the Theme, are now four basic frame elements of motion.
The two traditional approaches present two different ways of defining semantic components. For instance, the crucial semantic component PATH receives different treatments in different approaches. It may be lexicalized verb-internally as a semantic attribute in the meaning of the verb enter, or it can be specified verb-externally as a frame participant realized in the prepositional phrase [into+NP], serving as a core frame element in the structured background.
2.2 Deictic Verbs
There are many studies on deictic verbs, such as the semantics of “come” in Fillmore (1966), the distinction between “come” and “go” in Levinson (1983), and the classification of “come” and “go” in Levin and Rappaport (1992). It is mentioned in
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Levinson (1983: 83) that “come” suggests “moving towards the speaker’s location at coding time (i.e. the moment of utterance)” while “go” implies “moving away from the speaker’s location at coding time.” Such deictic concept is widely applied in languages including Mandarin.
In Mandarin, lái 來 ‘come’ and qù 去 ‘go’ belong to verbs that have built-in deictic components. The semantics of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ is investigated in many studies. For instance, it is mentioned in Huang (1982: 145) that they are pure motion verbs and do not have associated with them any notion of means or manner of movement. The means or manner of movement is usually expressed by a verb occuring before the deictic verb, as in the following examples:
(6) 他跑來/去了
tā pǎo lái/qù le 3SG run come/go PRF ‘He came/went by running.’
(7) 他走著來/去了
tā zǒu zhe lái/qù le 3SG walk DUR come/go PRF ‘He keeps coming/going by walking.’
Within the above examples, the verb pǎo 跑 ‘run’ and zǒu zhe 走著 ‘keep walking’ indicate repectively the manner and the means with which the movement toward the speaker in the case of lái 來 ‘come’, or away from the speaker in the case of qù 去 ‘go’. The similar basic meaning of the deictic verbs, lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’, is also discussed in Tang (1979: 302) and Chao (1980: 234).
11
Moreover, Liu (1998) provides the definition and the schemas1 of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ as follows:
(8) 來: 表示人或物通過動作向立足點移動2 (Liu, 1998:51)
(9) 去: 表示離開立足點向另一處所趨近3 (Liu, 1998:67)
The above schemas further specify the relation between the movement and the speaker. In the schema of lái 來 ‘come’, the mover moves toward the location where the speaker stands, while in the schema of qù 去 ‘go’, the mover moves away from the speaker and toward another location.
2.3 Deictic Complements
Besides the semantics of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’, the morphological possible combinations of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ and other verbs are also discussed. According to Chao (1980), verbs specifying directions such as lái 來 ‘come’, qù 去 ‘go’, shàng 上 ‘go up’, xià 下 ‘go down’, jìn 進 ‘enter’, chū 出 ‘exit’, qǐ 起 ‘rise’, huí 回 ‘return’, guò 過 ‘pass’, kāi 開 ‘go away’, lǒng 攏 ‘gather’ may be used as the main verb of a sentence or combined with other verbs to form
verb-complement compounds. Therefore, as either a verb or a complement, lái 來
1
The circle, the arrow, the box, and the cross represent respectively the mover, the direction, the location, and the deictic center.
2
“Come” represents that a person or a thing moves toward the deictic center through motion.
3
“Go” represents that a person or a thing moves away from the deictic center and moves toward another location.
12
‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ is included in four types of directional constructions suggested by Chao (1980):
Type (1): verbs or complements: lái 來 ‘come’, qù 去 ‘go’, eg. sòng-qù 送去 ‘send’
Type (2): verbs or complements: shàng 上 ‘go up’, xià 下 ‘go down’, jìn 進 ‘enter’, chū 出 ‘exit’, qǐ 起 ‘rise’, huí 回 ‘return’, guò 過 ‘pass’, kāi 開 ‘go apart’, lǒng 攏 ‘gather’, eg. zǒu-kāi 走開 ‘walk away’
Type (3): double complements formed with a type 2 followed by a type 1 complement, eg. rēng-guò-qù 扔過去 ‘toss over’
Type (4): verbs which can form single complements but no double complement with type 1, eg. pèn-dǎo le zhuōzi 碰倒了桌子 ‘knock down the table’
From the above, we may conclude that lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ can be used as directional verbs such as those in type (1) and also as directional complements such as those in type (3) when combined with other directional complements. Moreover, lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ cannot co-occur with some complements in type (4), such as dǎo 倒 ‘down’ in pèng.dǎo 碰倒 ‘knock down’ or fān 翻 ‘turn over’ in dǎ.fān 打翻 ‘spill’.
The similar point that lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ can serve as verbs or
complements is also held in Lamarre (2009: 6). Verbs such as zǒu 走 ‘walk’ belong to co-event verbs, which range from typical manner verbs in self-agentive motion sentences (eg. walk, run, hurry, rush, swim, crawl) to verbs expressing a direct cause of motion (eg. call, cheat, meet, get, invite, borrow, rescue...). As for lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ after the co-event verbs, they fall into a small subset of path verbs expressing path meanings that will be grammaticalized into path directionals (or
13
satellites) and appear after co-event verbs. The path directionals consist of two components: non-deictic and deictic. Both of the components along with co-event verbs enter three distinct syntactic positions in a fixed order: [Co-event
Verb+non-deictic Path Satellite+diectic Path Satellite], as shown in the following table.
Table 1. Mandarin twofold Path Satellites4
Table 1 lists the main path satellites, to show how deictic and nondeictic items combine.
2.4 Deictic Morphemes in the Scale Structure
Lin (2011) adopted the scale structure proposed in Rappaport Hovav and Levin (2010) in distinguishing scalar and non-scalar morphemes. Instead of the traditional two-way classification of motion morphemes into manner-of-motion morphemes and path morphemes (Talmy 2000), Chinese motion morphemes can be further classified into four subtypes based on three features defining a scale, which are the existence of a scale, boundedness, and punctuality. Nonscalar change motion morphemes are equivalent to manner-of-motion morphemes in Talmy (2000), whereas the other three types are subtypes of Talmy’s path morphemes, as the figure below shows:
4
In the table, Pnd refers to non-deictic Path satellites, and Pd refers to deictic
14
Figure 1. Four-way classification of English motion verbs
The deictic morphemes lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ are treated as multi-point closed scale motion morphemes which are durative and bounded. The motion takes place along a scale that has an endpoint (i.e., bounded) and there are multiple points along the scale (i.e., durative).
2.5 The Alternation of Deictic of Motion and Locative NPs
The feature of boundedness in deictics has been elaborate in Lin’s research (2011: 133-134). It is proposed that when a ground NP is absent, lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ must be present. However, when a ground NP is present, they become optional. The following examples illustrate the observation above:
(10) a. *他回了 tā huí le he return PRF b. 他回學校了 tā huí xuéxiào le he return school PRF ‘He returned to school.’
15 c. 他回來/去了
tā huì-lái/qù le he return-come/go PRF ‘He came/went back.’
d. 他回學校(來/去)了
tā huì xuéxiào lái/qù le he return school come/go PRF ‘He returned to school.’
We can see from the above examples that when the ground NP xuéxiào 學校 ‘school’ is absent, lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ must be present, as in (10c), or the sentence would be ungrammatical, as in (10a). However, when a ground NP is present, as in (10d), lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ becomes optional.
The reason to account for the observation is that the function of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ after the motion morphemes is to satisfy their requirement for ground information. Some morphemes, such as chū 出 ‘exit’ , huí 回 ‘return’, and jìn 進 ‘enter’, require explicitly expressed ground in a motion event. Besides direction of motion, the deictic verbs lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ also lexically specify the ground (the deictic center indicated by lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’).
The same issue has been discussed in Liu et al. (2012) as well. It is proposed that either a Deictic or a Loc-NP can serve as a delimiting Endpoint. The Deictics help to locate a Speaker-centered endpoint.
Moreover, either a Loc-NP or a Deictic may serve as a locational reference. A Deictic marker is not semantically required as an inherently essential component to the motion schema but adds a subjective interpretation by putting the Speaker as a reference point. If a Loc-NP is taken as the objective reference for a motion event, then a Deictic may serve as the subjective reference, which is probably why a Deictic
16
may alternate with a Loc-NP in marking the delimiting point of motion.
2.6 The Sequencing of Deictic Complements, Locative NPs, and
Self-motion Verbs
On top of the combination of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ and other directionals, there are also studies on the syntactic sequences of deictic complemenets and locative NPs. According to Lamarre (2009: 11), when all three items co-occur with a locative NP, they are only found in the sequence [Co-event Verb+ non-deictic Path Satellite+ locative NP + diectic Path Satellite] (eg. fēi-huí běijīng qù 飛回北京去 ‘fly back to Beijing’), but not in another sequence (eg. fēi-huí-qù běijīng *飛回去北京.) The issue is also tackled in Chao (1980: 233-41), in which zǒu-chū mén lái 走出門來 ‘walk out of the door’ is acceptable while zǒu-chū-lái mén *走出來門 or zǒu mén chū-lái * 走門出來 is not. The idea that locative NPs fall in only one pattern of sequence but not others is mentioned in many studies as well, such as in Zhu (1982: 128), Zhang (1991: 6), Li (2005: 18), Ye (2005: 318), and Cai (2006: 67-68).
However, it is also noted that in some southern Sinitic languages like Taiwanese and Cantonese, the locative NP follows the deictic element of a verb-directional compound. (Lamarre, 2009: 11). Some examples of the locative NP following the deictic element of a verb-directional compound are also found in Cai (2006: 68).
The similar issue that the locative NP may follow the Deictics of Motion is also investigated in Liu (2012). It is said that the concept of Deictic is independent from the notion of motion event but they could be integrated. To take a closer look at Deictic from the following corpus data, we found that Deictic has its own schema which contains two elements, Deictic and Locative NP. Moreover, we may draw the conclusion that the position of Deictic is flexible from the two examples below. It can be placed before or after the Locative NP.
17 huí lái/qù xuéxiào return come/go school ‘to come/go back to the school’ b. 回學校來/去
huí xuéxiào lái/qù return school come/go ‘to come/go back to the school’
Therefore, the schema of the Deictic is as the following figure:
Figure 2. The schema of Deictic
Moreover, Pre-Loc 來 / 去 often follows a Direction before the Endpoint-marking 到 and Post-Loc 來/去 often follows the Loc-NP. Thus, it is possible to have two Deictics, as exemplified below (Liu et al. 2012):
(12) 樹葉飛落下來到河裡去
shùyè fēi luò xià lái dào hé lǐ qù
leaf fly fall go.down come arrive river inside go ‘The leaf flew down from the tree and into the river.’
Besides, it is argued that the Deictic is incorporated into a motion event to refer to the speaker-oriented perspective and hence involves its schema in the Proto-Motion Event Schema proposed in Liu et al. (2012). The integration of these two schemas is shown below:
18
Figure 3. The Deictic-incorporated Proto-Motion Event Schema
In the schema, we use double-edged arrow to indicate the possible positions of Deictic around the Locative NP. Deictic can occur after or before the Locative NP, as the schema above shows.
2.7 The Semantic Roles of the Locative NPs after Deictic
Complements
Besides the acceptable and unacceptable sequences, the semantic role of the NPs following Path verbs is also discussed. It is argued by Lamarre(2009) that the semantic relationship varies between Path verbs and their object Gound NP.
19
From Table 2, we see that deictic verbs lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ take GOAL NPs as their objects. However, since Lamarre (2009) temporarily leaves out the possibilities of the sequence [Co-event Verb+ non-deictic Path Satellite+ deictic Path Satellite + locative NP], the semantic role of the locative NP following the deictic element of a verb-directional compound is not mentioned.
From what we’ve discussed above, there are some areas in which we may further investigate. For example, we may look into the reason why lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ is syntactically or semantically incompatible with some motion verbs, and compare the differences between the sequence “V+ Locational Noun +來/去” and the less discussed sequence “V+來/去+ Locational Noun”. For now, this paper will first focus on the relations between lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ and self-motion verbs.
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Chapter 3
Database, Theoretical Framework and Methodology
3.1 Database
The corpus data used in this study come from Academic Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese (http://dbo.sinica.edu.tw/SinicaCorpus/index.html), which involves numerous texts with topics in society, life, literature, philosophy, science, and art; the Chinese Word Sketch (http://wordsketch.ling.sinica.edu.tw/), which contains grammatical co-occurrence statistics and differences of distribution patterns. Other sources used in this study are the FrameNet (http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/) and the online search engine Google (http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=zh-TW).
3.2 Theoretical Framework
Three theoretical frameworks will be introduced in the following sections.
3.2.1 Frame Semantics
The study is based on corpus observation and adopts Frame Semantics (Fillmore and Atkins 1992) as the research approach.
It is noted by Fillmore and Atkins that meanings of a word can be understood simply with its background frame which motivates the concept of the word. Each frame contains specific core frame elements, and word senses are distinguished by their highlighting different frame elements. Profiling different semantic elements will lead to different syntactic realizations.
21
3.2.2 Lexicalization Patterns
In search of syntactically relevant lexical components, Talmy maintains that it is possible to ‘isolate elements separately within the domain of meaning and within the domain of surface expression’ (2000:57).
He proposes that the basic motion event consists of four major components: an object (the Figure) moving with respect to another object (the Ground) along a path (Path) with the motional act Move, which is normally combined with Manner, the way the Figure object moves.
3.2.3 Integration of Verb-external and Verb-internal Approaches
A cognitively-motivated, iconically-structured framework is proposed in Liu et al. (2012) to represent a prototypical motion event. It is called the Proto-motion Event Schema (PMS). This iconic contour may be applied to sequences of sub-motion events as well as sequences of sub-motion morphemes, as shown in the following figure.
Figure 4. Sub-motion events vs. sub-motion morphemes
By identifying the semantic components pertaining to a proto-motion event and incorporating them in an iconic sequence, the proposed PMS, as represented below, provides an overarching template to integrate frame-based role components (cf. Fillmore and Atkins 1992) with lexically specified semantic attributes (cf. Talmy
22 2000).
Figure 5. The Proto-motion Event Schema in Mandarin
3.3 Methodology
To capture and analyze the distributional patterns and sequential constraints on deictic marking, four steps are taken as follows:
Step 1: Collecting Corpus Data — “V+來/去+ Locational Noun”
We collect the data of the sequence “V+來/去+ Locational Noun”. The verb in the sequence refers to the self-motion verbs in Mandarin. We take the self-motion verbs from the Deictic-incorporated Proto-Motion Event Schema in Liu et al. (2012) as lemmas to fill in the sequence and start the search. The lemmas include 20
self-motion verbs, which are zǒu 走 ‘walk’, pǎo 跑 ‘run’ , pá 爬 ‘crawl’ , gǔn 滾 ‘roll’ , tiào 跳 ‘jump’ , fēi 飛 ‘fly’ , guò 過 ‘pass’ , jìn 進 ‘enter’ , chū 出 ‘exit’ , shàng 上 ‘go up’ , xià 下 ‘go down’ , huí 回 ‘return’, luò 落 ‘fall’, dào 到
‘arrive’, rù 入 ‘enter’, cháo 朝 ‘face’, wǎng 往 ‘face’, jiàng 降 ‘descend’, tuì 退 ‘recede’, shēng 升 ‘ascend’.
23
After deciding the lemmas for the verb, we collect the corpus data for the sequence “V+來/去+ Locational Noun”. First, we log in the Chinese Word Sketch, where one can search data there from both the Chinese Gigaword and the Sinica Corpus. After we log in, we press the New Query. Then, we press Word Sketch on the top so that we can see the collocations that the Chinese Word Sketch has roughly classified for each word and phrase. We choose the corpus first, such as Sinica or Gigaword. Then, We choose one lemma and combine it with the Deictics of Motion, such as zǒu lái 走來 ‘walk-come’, and enter it in the blank called Word Form. The Minimum Frequency below the Word Form is set from 5 to 1 so that we will not miss any collocations occurring with the phrase. After the things above are done, we press the button Show Word Sketch. Many collocations with the phrase zǒu lái 走來 ‘walk-come’ would appear, such as the preposition phrases, the modifiers, the subjects, and the objects. Within the collocations, we focus on the objects to see whether there is any locational noun. If there is any, we will click on the data and the whole context will show up. After checking the validity of the data, we may or may not keep it.
Another way we collect the data is through the Google Search Engine. We combine the self-motion verbs with Deictics of Motion and any locational nouns we can think of, such as zǒu lái cāntīng 走來餐廳 ‘walk-come restaurant’, zǒu qù cāntīng 走去餐廳 ‘walk-go restaurant’, zǒu lái fángjiān 走來房間 ‘walk-come room’, zǒu qù fángjiān 走去房間 ‘walk-go room’, etc. When we search these phrases, we put them in quotation marks so that the Google will search the exact same phrase.
Step 2: Collecting Corpus Data — “V+ Locational Noun +來/去”
After collecting the data of the sequence “V+來/去+ Locational Noun”, we also search for the data of “V+ Locational Noun +來/去”. The lemmas used are basically
24
the same. However, the method of collecting the data is a little different. In the blank of Word Form, we type in the verb alone, such as zǒu 走 ‘walk’. Within the
collocations shown, we focus on the objects of the locational nouns as well. After clicking on certain locational noun, such as shānlù 山路 ‘mountain road’, we use the button Filter to find the occurences that end with Deictics of Motion. We type in Deictics of Motion in Word Form, such as lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’, and set the Filter in the positive status so that the result will be the occurences WITH the Deictics of Motion. After pressing Filter Concordance below, we get the data of “V+
Locational Noun +來/去” .
We also use Google to collect data of the sequence with the same method mentioned above.
Step 3: Examining the Data
We examine the data in syntactic patterns and constraints, the interaction between the self-motion verbs and the Deictics of Motion, the types of the locational nouns co-occurring with Deictics of Motion, and the semantic contribution of the Deictics of Motion.
Step 4: Analyzing the Data
Some distinctions between the two sequences are found from the corpus data. The distinctions are highly related to the self-motion verbs they combine with. The interaction between the self-motion verbs and the Deictics of Motion shed light on the semantics of the Deictics of Motion in different positions. Besides, the locational nouns also play an important role in accounting for the distinction of the two sequences.
25
Step 5: Incorporating the Analysis into a Frame-based Hierarchical
Structure
Following the assumption that meanings of verbs can only be defined in semantic frame with profiled lexical elements (Fillmore and Atkins 1992, Goldberg 2005), Mandarin motion verbs are analyzed and categorized by a frame-based hierarchical taxonomy, by Liu and Chiang (2008) with a multi-layed structured classification of semantic frames: Archiframe > Primary frame > Basic frame > Microframe. Frames in the higher level denote a broader scope of certain semantic domain with background information. Frames in the lower level inherit from upper frames and provide frame-specific description.
In general, we will provide a corpus-based approach to see the collocational differences of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ and offer a frame-based anaylsis on Deictic of Motion.
26
Chapter 4
Findings
This chapter aims to present and describe the findings obtained in corpus observations. The study examined the syntactic and semantic behaviors of the Deictics of Motion in different positions from a number of aspects: 1) the sentence patterns 2) the interaction between the self-motion verbs and the Deictics of Motion; 3) the types of the locational nouns co-occurring with Deictics of Motion; 4) the semantic contribution of the Deictics of Motion. Based on the findings, the Deictics of Motion in the two sequences can be further analyzed.
4.1 Corpus Observations of Deictics of Motion
Deictics of Motion fit in several sentence patterns. Within the sentence patterns, some elements are often involved. Deictics of Motion often occurs with Figure, Manner verbs, Path verbs, and locational nouns, including Ground, Directional NPs, and Locative NPs.
In the motion events with Deictic of Motion, a moving entity (Figure) adopts a particicular way of movement (Manner verbs) or a particular path of movement (Path verbs). With a certain manner or path of motion, the moving entity decides on the motional contour in which it may move toward a location (Directional NP) and reach its final destination (Locative NP). Also the moving entity may launch a movement without a specific motional contour taking place in a setting (Ground). Incorporated into Motion, Deictics of Motion serve as an optional marker indicating the spatial orientation in relation to the deictic center, the Speaker.
27 Liu et al. (2012) below:
Figure 6. Deictic-Incorporated Proto-Motion Event Schema in Mandarin
The sentence patterns are shown in the following table:
Table 3. Sentence Patterns of Deictics of Motion
Sentence patterns Examples
Figure < ＊ [他/figure]來了
tā lái le 3SG come PRF ‘He came.’ (Sinica Corpus)
Figure < ＊ < Loc-NP [我/figure]來[臺灣/ Loc-NP]已經五年 多了。
wǒ lái táiwān yǐjīng wǔ nián 1SG come Taiwan already five year duō le
more PRF
‘I came to Taiwan for more than five years.’
28
(Sinica Corpus)
Figure < ＊ < {到} < Loc-NP [我/figure]來到[台灣/ Loc-NP]了！ wǒ lái dào táiwān le
1SG come arrive Taiwan PRF ‘I came to Taiwan.’
Figure < Vmanner < ＊ < Loc-NP [我/figure][跑/ Vmanner]去[附近的便利
商店/ Loc-NP]， wǒ pǎo-qù fùjìn de 1SG run-go nearby DE biànlìshāngdiàn convenience.store
‘I ran to the convenience store nearby.’ (Google 2013/03/26)
Figure < Vmanner < Loc-NP <＊ [年輕人/figure]都[跑/ Vmanner] [外面/
Loc-NP]去了，
niánqīng rén dōu pǎo wàimiàn qù young people all run outside go le
PRF
‘Young people all ran outside.’ (Sinica Corpus)
Figure < Vmanner < Ground NP <＊ [ 我 們 /figure] [ 走 / Vmanner] [ 古 道 /
Ground NP]去
wǒmen zǒu gǔdào qù 1PL walk old.trail go
29
‘We went walking at the old trail.’ (Google 2013/03/26)
Figure < Vpath < ＊< Loc-NP [她們/figure]每天從醫院[回/ Vpath]來
[精舍/ Loc-NP]
tāmén měi tiān cóng yīyuàn
3PL every day from hospital
huí-lái jīngshè
return-come temple
‘They returned to the temple from the hospital every day.’
(Chinese Gigaword)
Figure < Vpath < Loc-NP< ＊ [所有人/figure]全部[下/ Vpath] [一樓/
Loc-NP]去
suǒyǒu rén quánbù xià all people all go.down yìlóu qù
first.floor go
‘All people went down to the first floor.’
(Google 2013/03/26) Figure < Vpath < ＊ [他/figure] [回/ Vpath]去了
tā huí-qù le 3SG return-go PRF ‘He went back.’ (Sinica Corpus)
30
Figure < {往/朝} < Directional NP< ＊ 有[ 人 /figure] 往/ 朝[ 屋裡 /Directional NP]來了
yǒu rén wǎng/cháo wūlǐ lái have person toward house.inside come le
PRF
‘There was someone coming toward the house.’
(Sinica Corpus)
Figure < Vmanner < Vpath < ＊ < Loc-NP [表姐/figure] [走/ Vmanner] [進/ Vpath]
來[房間/ Loc-NP]，
biǎojiě zǒu-jìn-lái fángjiān cousin walk-enter-come room ‘My cousin walked into the room.’ (Google 2013/03/26)
Figure < Vmanner < Vpath < Loc-NP< ＊ [我/figure]今天要用走的[走/ Vmanner]
[回/ Vpath] [家裡/ Loc-NP]去
wǒ jīntiān yào yòng zǒu de 1SG today MOD use walk DE zǒu-huí jiālǐ qù
walk-return home go
‘I would walk back home today.’ (Google 2013/03/26)
Figure < Vmanner < Vpath < ＊ [蚊子/figure]都[跑/ Vmanner] [進/ Vpath]
31
wénzi dōu pǎo-jìn-lái le mosquito all run-enter-come PRF ‘Mosquitoes all came inside.’ (Google 2013/03/26)
From the data above, there are two major observations.
First, lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ fits in three main positions, which are Post-Loc position, Pre-Loc position, and Pre-Loc position with dào 到 ‘arrive’, as the examples below show:
(13) a. Post-Loc position: 所有人全部下[一樓/ Loc-NP]去 b. Pre-Loc position: 她們從醫院回來[精舍/ Loc-NP] c. Pre-Loc position with 到: 我來到[台灣/ Loc-NP]了！
Second, the Loc-NP can be optional when lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ follows a path verb.
(14) a. 我今天走 [回/ Vpath] (家裡) 去
b. 我今天走 [回/ Vpath] 去(家裡)
4.2 The Commonly-found Sequence “V+來/去+ Locational Noun”
Though previously considered unacceptable, as in Chao (1980: 233-41), Zhu (1982: 128), Zhang (1991: 6), Li (2005: 18), Ye (2005: 318), and Cai (2006: 67-68), the sequence “V+來/去+ Locational Noun” is common in Taiwan Mandarin. The following are some corpus data:
(15) 我爬去床上睡下了.
wǒ pá-qù chuángshàng shuìxià le
1SG crawl-go bed.top sleep PRF ‘I crawled to bed to sleep.’
32 (Google 2012/12/11)
(16) RIO 喜歡跳來桌上看我打電腦，
RIO xǐhuān tiào-lái zhuōshàng kàn wǒ dǎ diànnǎo
NM like jump-come table.top watch 1SG play computer ‘RIO likes to jump onto the table to watch me play the computer.’ (Google 2012/10/08)
(17) 我當場氣炸,直接跳去床上不跟他說話直接睡覺!
wǒ dāngchǎng qìzhá zhíjiē tiào-qù chuángshàng bù gēn tā
1SG at.the.scene furious directly jump-go bed.top NEG with 3SG
shuōhuà zhíjiē shuìjiào
speak directly sleep
‘I was so furious at the scene that I jumped to bed to sleep instead of talking to him.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
(18) 我獨自飛來美國~
wǒ dúzì fēi-lái měiguó
1SG alone fly-come USA
‘I came to the USA by plane alone.’ (Google 2012/12/11)
(19) 老妹又飛去美國了
lǎomèi yòu fēi-qù měiguó le
33 ‘My younger sister flew to the USA again’ (Google 2012/12/11)
(20) 茶杯自己滾去地上
chábēi zìjǐ gǔn-qù dìshàng
tea.cup self roll-go ground
‘The tea cup rolled to the ground itself.’ (Google 2012/12/11)
(21) 熊跑去洞裡冬眠，
xióng pǎo-qù dònglǐ dōngmián
bear run-go cave.inside winter.sleep ‘The bear went inside the cave to hibernate.’ (Google 2012/12/11)
(22) 我們走去山上拍照，
wǒmén zǒu-qù shānshàng pāizhào
1PL walk-go mountain.top take.picture
‘We walked to the mountain top to take pictures.’ (Google 2012/12/11)
(23) 她那年就已經過來台灣玩了。
tā nà nián jiùyǐjīng guò-lái táiwān wán le
3SG that year already pass-come Taiwan play PRF ‘She has come to Taiwan to play since that year.’ (Google 2012/12/11)
34
(24) 他希望我和女兒能儘快過去美國和他一起生活.
tā xīwàng wǒ hé nǚér néng jìnkuài guò-qù
3SG hope 1SG and daughter MOD as.soon.as.possible pass-go
měiguó gēn tā yìqǐ shēnghuó
USA and 3SG together live
‘He hoped that my daughter and I go to the USA to live with him as soon as possible.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
(25) 外國資本家可以堂而皇之進來大陸，
wàiguó zīběnjiā kěyǐ tangérhuángzhī jìn-lái dàlù
foreign capitalist MOD make.no.secret enter-come mainland
‘Foreign capitalists can make no secret of their entering into the mainland.’ (Sinica Corpus)
(26) 買了站票的乘客，想進去餐廳、
mǎi le zhànpiào de chéngkè xiǎng jìn-qù cāntīng
buy ASP stand.ticket REL passenger want enter-come restaurant
‘Passengers who had bought the ticket wanted to go inside the restaurant.’ (Google 2012/12/11)
(27) 瑞娜珊將自己變回人形，出來庭院透透氣，
ruìnàshān jiāng zìjǐ biànhuí rénxíng chū-lái tíngyuàn
NM DISP self change.back human.shape out-come yard
35 breathe.the.air
‘Rinassan transformed back into human and came out to the yard to get some air.’
(Sinica Corpus)
(28) 我們取車時，只看到小女童獨自一人先行下來停車場，
wǒmén qǔ chē shí zhǐ kàndào xiǎo nǚtóng dúzì yì rén
1PL take car time just see little girl alone one person
xiānxíng xià-lái tíngchēchǎng
beforehand go.down-come parking.lot
‘When we went to get our car, we saw the little girl come down to the parking lot alone beforehand.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
(29) 王順霞要越過手扶梯維修孔上去二樓時，不慎踩空，
wángshùnxiá yào yuè-guò shǒufútī wéixiūkǒng shàng-qù
NM want go.over-pass escalator fix.hole go.up-go
èrlóu shí búshèn cǎikōng
second.floor time careless slip
‘When Wangshunxia wanted to cross over the fix hole of the escalator and go up to the second floor, she slipped out of carelessness.’
(Google 2012/12/11)
(30) 少年仔都出去外地打拼，
shàoniánzài dōu chū-qù wàidì dǎpīn
36
‘Teenagers all went out to other places to make a living.’ (Chinese Gigaword)
(31) 楊文蔚每星期都要從新竹上來台北團練一次，
yangwénwèi měi xīngqí dōu yào cóng xīnzhú shàng-lái táiběi tuánliàn
NM every week all want from NM go.up-come NM team.practice
yí cì
one time
‘Yangwenwei came from Hsinchu to Taipei once a week to practice for her team.’
(Chinese Gigaword)
(32) 兩個人下去餐廳叫菜上來三個人分，
liǎng ge rén xià-qù cānting jiàocài shàng-lái sān ge rén
two CL person go.down-go restaurant order go.up-come three CL person
fēn
share
‘Two people went down to the restaurant to order some food for three people.’ (Chinese Gigaword)
(33) 她們每天從醫院回來精舍，
tāmén měi tiān cóng yīyuàn huí-lái jīngshè
3PL every day from hospital return-come temple
‘They returned to the temple from the hospital every day.’ (Chinese Gigaword)
37 (34) 他還是必須回去醫院驗尿作檢查。
tā háishì bìxū huí-qù yīyuàn yàn niào zuò jiǎnchá
3SG still have.to return-go hospital test urine do checkup
‘He still had to return to the hospital to do checkups by testing the urine.’ (Chinese Gigaword)
The above corpus data show that the sequence “V+來/去+ Loc-NP” is common in Taiwan Mandarin.
4.3 The Sequential Constraints of Deictics of Motion with Motion
Verbs
Some distributional constraints of lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ and self-motion verbs are found as the following table shows. Self-motion verbs are divided into three groups according to their behaviors when combined with Deictics of Motion.
38
Table 4. Distributional constraints of 來/去 with motion verbs
From Group 1, we see that these verbs appear in both sequences, where lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ can both precede or follow the locational nouns. The verbs include zǒu 走 ‘walk’, pǎo 跑 ‘run’ , pá 爬 ‘crawl’ , gǔn 滾 ‘roll’ , tiào 跳 ‘jump’ , fēi 飛 ‘fly’ , guò 過 ‘pass’ , jìn 進 ‘enter’ , chū 出 ‘exit’ , shàng 上 ‘go up’ , xià 下 ‘go down’ , huí 回 ‘return’, luò 落 ‘fall’.
However, the role of the NPs following them is not the same. In the following table, we see that some verbs take NPs encoding both Endpoint and Ground, while
39 others take only NPs encoding Enpoint.
Table 5. The Role of the NPs Following Verbs of Group 1
From Group 2, it is clear that lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ does not directly follow self-motion verbs such as dào 到 ‘arrive’, rù 入 ‘enter’, wǎng 往 ‘face’, and cháo 朝 ‘face’. They only follow the locational nouns behind these verbs. However, in Group 3, lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ prefers to directly follow self-motion verbs in the cases of tuì 退 ‘recede’, jiàng 降 ‘descend’ and shēng 升 ‘ascend’ instead of following the locational nouns.
With the different distributional patterns, some questions may therefore arise here. In terms of verbs in Group 1, what is the difference between these verbs? Why do they take different NPs? Moreover, what may account for the ungrammatical sentences in Group 2? As for the verbs in Group 3, what may explain the differences between the preferred and the less preferred sequences?
40
Location
There are many types of NPs observed from the corpus data, and they interact with lái 來 ‘come’/ qù 去 ‘go’ in very different ways. The NPs can be those denoting Endpoint (Loc-NPs) or Ground, or they can be Route and Directional Landmarks (a passing point or a directional noun). Moreover, they can be the NPs that have ambiguous interpretations of Source or Goal (Endpoint). In the following sections, Endpoint-denoting Loc-NPs will be introduced in 4.4.1, Groud-denoting NPs will be discussed in 4.4.2, Route and Directional Landmarks will be mentioned in 4.4.3, while the ambiguous interpretations of Source or Goal will be investigated in 4.4.4. Last, a summary of these NPs will be provided in 4.4.5.
4.4.1 Endpoint-denoting Loc-NPs
In general, Loc-NPs denote the boundaries (ie. the starting point or the destination) of the path of motion. It is common that the Loc-NPs precede or follow Deictics of Motion, as the examples show:
(35) a. 大家都回家鄉去了
dàjiā dōu huí jiāxiāng qù le everybody all return country go PRF ‘Everybody returned to their countries.’
(Sinica Corpus)
b. 爺爺今天要回去永和了，
yéye jīntiān yào huí-qù yǒnghé le grandpa today MOD return-go NM PRF ‘Grandpa would return to Yonghe today.’ (Sinica Corpus)
41
suǒyǒu rén quánbù xià yìlóu qù all people all go.down first.floor go ‘All people went down to the first floor.’ (Google 2013/03/26)
b. 他們下去兒童泳池嬉水。
tāmen xià-qù értóng yǒngchí xīshuǐ
3PL go.down-go child pool play.with.water ‘They went down to the children’s pool to play.’ (Gigaword)
(37) a. 婆婆已經上頂樓去了;
pópo yǐjīng shàng dǐnglóu qù le grandma already go.up top.floor go PRF ‘Grandma went up to the top floor.’
(Google 2013/03/26)
b. 你可以購買 7 歐元的門票，然後攀爬 284 階樓梯上去頂樓， nǐ kěyǐ gòumǎi qī ōuyuán de ménpiào ránhòu 2SG MOD buy seven Europe.dollar DE ticket then pānpá liǎngbǎi bāshí sì jiē lóutī shàng-qù dǐnglóu climb two.hundred eight.ten four floor stair go.up-go top.floor
‘You could buy the ticket of 7 Europe dollars and then climbed 284 stairs to the top floor.’
(Google 2013/03/26) (38) a. 女孩從床上跳地上來。
nǚhái cóng chuángshàng tiào dìshàng lái girl from bed.top jump ground come ‘The girl jumped from the bed to the ground.’
42 (Google 2013/03/18)
b. RIO 喜歡跳來桌上看我打電腦，
RIO xǐhuān tiào-lái zhuōshàng kàn wǒ dǎ diànnǎo NM like jump-come table.top watch 1SG play computer ‘RIO likes to jump onto the table to watch me play the computer.’ (Google 2012/10/08)
(39) a. 爸爸又飛美國來了。 bàba yòu fēi měiguó lái le
father again fly America come PRF ‘Father flew to America again.’
(Google 2013/03/18)
b. 張欣飛來杭州，給阿眉帶來很多東西，
zhāngxīn fēi-lái hángzhōu gěi āméi dàilái hěnduō dōngxī NM fly-come NM GEI NM bring many thing ‘Zhangxin flew to Hangzhou and brought Amei many things.’ (Google 2013/03/18)
The above sentences all include Loc-NPs that denote the destination of the path with single Deictic of Motion. On top of that, it is possible that two Deictics of Motion occur with single Loc-NP in one sentence. For example, the following sentences show that there are two Deictics of Motion in one sentence and, moreover, there are some constraints on the distribution of the Deictics of Motion in such sentences:
(40) a. 電梯升上來到屋頂來
diàntī shēng shàng lái dào wūdǐng lái
43
‘‘The elevator rose and came to the roof top.’
b. 電梯升上來到屋頂去
diàntī shēng shàng lái dào wūdǐng qù
elevator ascend go.up come arrive roof.top go ‘‘The elevator rose and went to the roof top.’
c. *電梯升上去到屋頂來
diàntī shēng shàng qù dào wūdǐng lái elevator ascend go.up come arrive roof.top go
d. 電梯升上去到屋頂去
diàntī shēng shàng qù dào wūdǐng qù
elevator ascend go.up come arrive roof.top go ‘‘The elevator rose and went to the roof top.’
We can see from the above that there are two Deictics of Motion in each sentence. However, only sentence (C) is ungrammatical, given qù 去 ‘go’ being the first Deictic of Motion and lái 來 ‘come’ being the second Deictic of Motion. How do we account for the data?
4.4.2 Ground
The core meaning of Ground NPs specifies the maintenance of a stationary location5. Moreover, the Ground NPs are often observed to syntactically precede
5
The concept of Ground proposed in Talmy (2000) includes the “locatedness”, i.e., maintenance of a stationary location.
