A Comparasion Study Of Directional Verbs "Shang" And "Qi" As Complements

The directional verbs in modern Chinese have been one of the most disputable topics with itscomplexity in semantics and grammar. This thesis is supposed to discuss a pair of directional verbs“shang” and “qi”, which are related in meanings, as they both function as complement and sharessimilar characteristics in semantics and grammar performance. By describing the meanings andgrammar tic structure of each verb and the relevant composed directional verbs, a comparison is madeto analysis their similarities and differences, while cognitive linguistics conduct as major theoreticevidence to the argument. Then the comparison leads to an explanation of the reason of suchsimilarities and differences between the two words and a series of image schemas are established. Atlast, a diachronic analysis is given to trace the grammaticalization of these two words, complementaryevidence that also helps to explain the motivation of the convergence and divergence of “shang” and“qi” in the historic change in semantics and grammar.