On The Semantic Orientation Of Verb-resultative Construction's Complement

The semantic orientation has remained a hot topic in recent years. The verb-resultative construction is a typical structure in the syntax of Chinese, and its syntax and semantic features have been what the researchers home and abroad focus on. This dissertation aims to study the semantic orientation of the Chinese verb-resultative complement.Based on the achievements of the researchers, this dissertation tries to describe and explain the semantic orientation of the verb-resultative complement, taking the Chinese verb-resultative construction as the research object, the historical source and development of the verb-resultative construction the research basis, the achievements on the verb-resultative valence the reference, and the Optimality Theory the theoretical background. This dissertation is divided into five chapters.Chapter One is an introduction. It defines the basic concepts related to the present study and explains the research method, the basic theory and the research significance.Chapter Two gives a comprehensive review of the current research on the verb-resultative construction and the semantic orientation. Firstly, it introduces the research on the verb-resultative construction from the following aspects: the emerging period, the historical sources and the valence theory. Then, it briefly describes the current research on the semantic orientation. Finally, it makes a comment on the current research of the complement semantic orientation, and explains the main points covered in this dissertation.Chapter Three discusses the semantic orientation of modern Chinese verb-resultative complement. At first, it discusses the features and restrictions of the semantics and syntax of verb-resultative construction, which are caused by the complex multi-dimensional deep semantics and the simple asymmetric surface structure. This imbalance also causes the non-correspondence between the syntax orientation and the semantic orientation of verb-resultative complement. Secondly, it discusses the types of modern Chinese verb-resultative construction. Two methods to classify the verb-resultative construction are brought out. One is to classify it into the separate type and the dual type, according to the orientation features of verb and complement. The other is to divide it into the abstract meaning and the concrete meaning the complement expresses, based on the complement's being abstract or concrete in meaning. At last, referring to the valence theory, it classifies the orientation of the complement semantics through the analysis on the whole valence, the valance between the verb-resultative predicate and the complement predicate, and the presentation of the argument.Chapter Four discusses the relations between various Chinese constructions relevant to the VRC. We can judge the semantic orientation of the complement through omitting the verb and transferring verb-resultative construction into the marked construction, such as receptor-subject sentence, Ba construction, Bei construction and the verb-copying construction. Finally the essay deals with the distribution of the Ba construction, Bei construction and the verb-copying construction for the purpose of identifying semantic orientationChapter Five explores the methods on how to find the complement semantic reference, depending on Optimality Theory. First of all, the dissertation analyzes the causes of the signifier and signified of the verb-resultative complement, for example, the'Advantage'theory on close constituent order, the relative animacy and definite reference of agent and patient. Besides, it identifies the semantic orientation of the complement through Optimality Theory.Chapter Six draws a conclusion on this dissertation and shows the shortness as well.This dissertation describes and explains the research on the semantic orientation of the verb-resultative complement, and tries to make an observation synchronically and diachronically. With the guide of the valence theory, it describes the semantic orientation of the complement in categories and then gives the explanation. Meanwhile, it summarizes the valence of complement semantic orientation and the verb-resultative, the valance of the verb and the mutual relationship of the complement verb valence. Under the framework of the Optimality Theory, it identifies the semantic orientation of the complement.