A Research On Selection Constraints Of The Chinese Dative Construction On Verbs

Chinese dative construction is a type of construction expressing the information of transferring. This paper includes the following four subtype constructions: C₁（X+V+gei+Y+Z, "Wo songgei ni yibenshu"）, C₂（X+V+Y+gei+Z, "Wo Song yibenshu gei ni"）, C₃（X+gei+Y+Z+V, "Wo gei ni song yibenshu"）, C₄（X+Y+Z+V, "Wo song ni yibenshu"）. Dative verbs cannot freely appear in all the four subtype constructions, and a given verb can only appear in some certain constructions. This phenomenon is called the Constraints of the Chinese Dative Construction. Following Construction Grammar, this paper aims at answering following questions: Why do different constructions contain different verbs? What are the selection constraints of the Chinese dative construction on verbs?This paper mainly includes the following three sections.Section Ⅰ, Introduction. This section includes the research object, research background, research method, the source of corpus, reviews, etc.Section Ⅱ, Chapter 2 to Chapter 5. In this section, we will discuss the verbs appearing in C₁, C₂, C₃ and C₄. And we will define the construction meanings of four constructions. The types of verbs in C₁ are subtype, means, and instrument. The types of verbs in C₂ are subtype, means, instrument and pre-condition. The type of verbs in C₃ is mainly pre-conditions type. As for other types, when they appear in C₃, the sentences are ambiguous. The types of verbs in C₄ are subtype, obtaining and naming. The construction meaning of C₁ is "Because of an action V, Z transfer to Y" The construction meaning of C₂ is "Z transfers to Y". Then construction meaning of C₃ is "X issued an action V, this action makes it possible for Y to accept Z." The construction meaning of C₄ is "Y receives Z".Section Ⅲ, Chapter 6 and Conclusions. This paper believes that the criterion which decides whether or not a given verb can enter a construction is whether semantic meanings of the structure and the verb fit well. There are three criteria to determine whether the verbs’ semantics can fit into the dative construction’s semantics. They are the transferability, the reachability and the direction. Finally, this paper will try to explain the Constraints of the Chinese Dative Construction.