Ditransitive Constructions In Tiandeng Zhuang

Ditransitive constructions, as universal language phenomena in world languages, have been studied by linguists for a long time, and some related theories include traditional grammar, structural grammar, generative grammar, cognitive grammar and so on. With the further study of ditransitive constructions in Chinese, ditransitive constructions in dialects attract more and more academic attention.The aim of the present study is to systematically describe and analyze the ditransitive constructions in Tiandeng Zhuang in detail. Supported by the abundant first-hand data and based on the achievement of cross-linguistic studies of ditransitive constructions, the present study is designed to give a detailed analysis and explanation for syntactic structures and formations of ditransitive constructions in Tiandeng Zhuang. The study shows that ditransitive constructions in Tiandeng Zhuang possess four patterns, namely (1) double-object construction A "V+01+OD", (2) double-object construction B "V+OD+01", (3) indirect-object construction A "V+ OD+PREP+01", (4) indirect-object construction B " V+PREP+01+OD". In light of the double object constructions, the major issues are the discussion of the word orders of direct object and indirect object and the classification of double object verbs. The formation of double object construction A attributes to the prominence of the indirect object, while that of construction B is affected by other three factors, namely the omitting of the second verb in serial verb construction, omitting of the preposition of the indirect-object construction A and pragmatic factors. The preposition haW22 in indirect-object construction comes from the grammaticalization of the verb haW22. In Tiandeng Zhuang indirect-object construction A is similar to the serial verb construction, therefore, it is easy to confuse these two constructions. So identifying the property of the word haW22 contributes to distinguish these two constructions. And the formation of indirect-object construction A dues to the postposition of heavy constituent. The formation of indirect-object construction B is ascribed to the prominence of the indirect object. As a matter of fact, the indirect-object construction B can transfer into double object construction A and indirect-object construction A.