On The Structural Form "Verb-reduplication+Complement" In Chinese

There cannot be complements after the reduplicated verbs in the modern northern dialect, but the collocation of"verb-reduplication+ complement"(VVC) can be used in the modern southern dialects. This paper discusses such an interesting phenomenon.Firstly, the grammatical meaning of the reduplicated verbs in Chinese is presented from the angle of the category of quantity. This paper holds the view that the grammatical meaning of the reduplicated verbs is different between the modern northern dialect and the modern southern dialects. And it tends to explain why the"VVC"is reasonable by dint of the iconicity of cognitive linguistics. Furthermore, this paper investigates semantic features of the collocation of"VVC"and its relevant collocations.Secondly, this paper proposes four parameters of typology related to the"VVC"in Chinese dialects to investigate the co-occurrence about verb-reduplication and complements in Chinese and its idiographic exhibition. The four parameters are as follows: 1.Co-occurrence about verb-reduplication and complements; 2.Semantic types of the complements in"VVC"; 3.Semantic grade of verb-reduplication in"VVC"; 4.Several grammatical forms related to the"VVC".Thirdly, this paper proposes the grammatical meanings of verb-reduplication fundamentally changed from"increased quantity"to"reduced quantity"in the history of grammaticalization in Chinese. And then it discusses the motivations of this change, which made the structural form"VVC (verb-reduplication+ complement)"disappeared gradually in the northern dialect, and the incomplete change in the dialects in South China, which made the"VVC"still preserved in the modern southern dialects.Besides, this paper aims to demonstrate that the verb reduplication (increased quantity) in ancient Chinese is the headspring of the verb reduplication (reduced quantity) in modern Chinese, and the grammaticalization of verb reduplication was triggered by the disyllabification tendency in Middle Chinese, and was used widely in modern Chinese, owing to the influence of the aspect system and the structural form"V一V".