The Multi-functions And Semantic Maps Of Lái ‘Come’ In Modern Chinese

Lái‘come’is an important type in Chinese directional verbs.Previous studies mainly focus on the grammatical functions or polysemy of lái‘come’in Mandarin Chinese or specific dialects,and less attention has been paid to the universal and specificity of lái‘come’.Whereas,in recent years,the development of lexical typology,semantic maps and Database of Cross-linguistic Colexifications make it possible to explore lái‘come’from a cross-linguistic/dialectal perspective.Under the framework of lexical typology,this thesis attempts to discuss the multi-functions of lái‘come’in modern Chinese and build the semantic maps of lái‘come’.This thesis aims to answer the following questions:(1)What are the multi-grammatical functions and lexical-semantic functions of lái‘come’in modern Chinese?(2)How can the conceptual space and semantic maps of lái‘come’be built in modern Chinese?(3)What are the cognitive motivations for semantic extensions of lái‘come’in modern Chinese?The major findings are as follows:First,this thesis has summarized 13 grammatical functions of lái‘come’in Mandarin Chinese and other 11 dialects,such as“directional complement”,“phase complement”,“dummy potential complement”and“pro-verb”.The establishment of conceptual space reflects the internal relationship between these grammatical functions.Besides,combining with previous studies on the grammatical evolutions of lái‘come’in specific dialects from a diachronic perspective,this thesis has established the dynamic conceptual space and semantic maps to reflect the grammatical evolutions of lái‘come’across dialects.Second,this thesis has made a systematic study of lexical-semantic functions of lái‘come’.Using the collostructional analysis,this thesis has classified three meanings of lái‘come’:directional meaning,resultative meaning,and“get”meaning.Resorting to Mandarin Chinese and 23 dialectal dictionaries,this thesis has identified 16 meanings of lái‘come’,such as“arrive”,“come back”,“happen”and“foreign”.Using the Database of Cross-linguistic Colexifications 3(CLICS~3),this thesis presents the network of colexifications for“COME”cross languages.It is found that some lexical-semantic functions of lái‘come’in Chinese dialects,such as“arrive”,“enter”and“get”,are universal across languages.Whereas,some meanings of lái‘come’in Chinese dialects are unique.For example,colexifications for“COME”and“BE BORN”are only found in specific Chinese dialects.Therefore,the colexification network for“COME”in Chinese dialects is established.According to the cross-dialectal evidence,the conceptual space of lái‘come’is constructed,and the implicational relationships between“directional meaning”,“resultative meaning”and“get”are found:directional meaning>resultative meaning,directional meaning>get,as well as the interconnections between other lexical-semantic functions.Third,from the semantic maps of lái‘come’,this thesis finds that the semantic extensions of lái‘come’are not at random,but constrained by the cognitive mechanisms of metaphor and metonymy.The mapping of metaphor observes the order of“space>time>quality”,while metonymy is realized through the profiling of different substructures of lái‘come’event.The lexical-semantic functions of lái‘come’can be categorized into five major types in terms of their different profiling of lái‘come’event.Namely,the source-prominent meaning,goal-prominent meaning,path-prominent meaning,direction-prominent meaning and figure-prominent meaning.Through systematically comparing their distribution in dialects,this thesis has established the semantic maps of these five types,and thus figure out the internal relationships between them.Under the framework of lexical typology,this study has applied semantic maps to the investigation of grammatical functions and lexical-semantic functions of Chinese directional verbs,and explored the cognitive motivations for semantic change of lái‘come’in terms of conceptual metaphor,conceptual metonymy and image schema.This may shed light on the systematic study of Chinese directional verbs.