Research On The Pro-verb "lai" In The Modern Chinese Language

In the modern Chinese language, "lai" has multiple meanings and usages, in which there is a usage to substitute the other verbs seems typical. Chao (1979) called this kind of "lai" as pro-verb. This paper focuses on the pro-verb "lai", trying to make a comprehensive study of the syntactic distribution, semantic content and pragmatic value of "lai" by using the three-dimensional theory and method. We also take reference to the cognitive linguistics and grammaticalization theory to determine the semantic content and generating course of the pro-verb "lai". Including the introduction, this paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter briefly introduces the current research results of the pro-verb "lai". Chapter two examines on the syntactic distribution of the verb and finds that the pro-verb "lai" is often followed by object, and before the object, there is often a numeral phrase. The third chapter focuses on the the generating mechanism of the pro-verb "lai", and we hold that the generating process starts with the real verb "lai" and changes with several semantic generalization and semantic grammaticalization. When the process reaches to the end, "lai" got the meaning of (an action or behavior) created or implemented. The forth chapter gathers the diachronical corpus to verify the constructional generating process of the pro-verb "lai". The last chapter focuses on the pragmatic value of the pro-verb "lai", we consider that the most important pragmatic function of "lai" is to substitute the other verbs. At the same time we also investigate the substitutive ability of "lai". Finally we discuss the using conditions and other pragmatic values of the pro-verb "lai".