The Expression Of Direction Of " Verb-Directional Verb"Construction In Chinese

Based on Talmy’s lexicalization pattern theory and Motion event frame theory, applying the literature data, the paper firstly analyzes whether the directional features of the verbs except directional verbs have the capabilities to control the expression of the direction of "verb-directional verb" construction in mandarin and concludes that the direction of the construction depends on the directional verb and is chosen by the context mainly. The main verbs appearing in this construction mainly express manner and have no restriction on the direction of the construction. These conclusions also prove that mandarin is Satellite-framed Language. Besides, some related topics have been discussed in the article, such as the issues of space metaphor about the direction of verb, the disadvantages of semantic analysis and formal verification in judging the direction of verb, the differences between verbs with strong directional meanings and directional verbs.Lastly, the paper preliminarily contrasts directional verbs in mandarin with corresponding language components in ancient Chinese and several foreign languages. By exploring the language problems of path’s direction, it is shown that Chinese has gone through a process of change from Verb-framed Language to Satellite-framed Language. Qiang(羌)language and Dulong(独龙)language in Tibeto-Burman group, though having directional affixes of higher degree of grammaticalization than directional verbs in Chinese, are Satellite-framed Languages. English particles and Chinese directional verbs, both as the satellites, have great similarities in expressing the meaning of path’s direction and figurative.