A Study Of The Verb-complement Structure In Yuan Dynasty

This paper is a study of the verb-complement structure (VC structure) in Yuan Dynasty. It researches VC structure of nine documents: Lao Qi Da, The Collection of Laws of the Yuan Dynasty, Tong Zhi Tiao Ge, Thirty Xin Jiao Yuan Kan Zaju, Zhi Shuo Tong Lue, The Collection of Vernacular Epigraph in Yuan Dynasty, Xiao Sun Tu, Record of Lute, and Huanmen Zidi Cuo Li Shen, which include 1,500,000 words in total. Altogether there are four chapters in this paper.Chapter 1 is a brief introduction. It presents the chosen documents, the studying bearings and the research findings of VC structure. The methods and criteria on how to categorize the forms of VC structure have been introduced in this chapter.Chapter 2 discusses the VC structure in Yuan Dynasty(Ⅰ),in which the verb-result complement, the verb-direction complement, the realization complement, the state complement, the potentiality complement and the degree complement have been explored separately. It explores from these aspects, such as whether VC structure takes objects, the syntactic position of the object, the conditions of the complements and the affirmative and negative forms."The realization complement"is a new concept proposed in this paper. It is a variant of the verb-result complement and the verb-direction complement. The conclusion is that"de(得)"expressing the meaning of"completion"or"realization"still existed in Yuan Dynasty. And two forms of the degree complement already appeared in Yuan Dynasty.Chapter 3 discusses the VC structure in Yuan Dynasty(Ⅱ). It discusses two special forms of VC structure in Yuan Dynasty—"verb+Liaodang(了当)/Qi(讫)/Wan(完)/Ba(罢)"and"verb+Jiang(将)+direction".Chapter 4 is the surplus discussion. In this chapter, comparisons about regions and document attributes have been made between these complement forms. The conclusion is that in Yuan Dynasty the types of VC structure in the Southern areas are almost the same as those in the Northern areas. The verb-result complement and the verb-direction complement are used more in the documents than in the dramas, while the state complement and the potentiality complement are used more in the dramas than in the documents.