A Collostructional Analysis Of The Semantics Of “xià‘down'” In Chinese

Chinese directional verbs can both be used as independent verbs and to indicate a variety of additional meanings.“xià ‘down'” is a multifunctional morpheme that is used more frequently in directional verbs.There have been many scholars studying the meaning of “xià ‘down'”,especially when “xià ‘down'” is used as directional complements,but most of these previous studies are mainly focused on the semantic study of it's the verbs placed before “xià ‘down'”,while ignoring the relationship between these verbs and “xià ‘down'+V” construction.What's more,the previous researches on directional verbs remain mainly at the level of case analysis and there is a lack of comparison of commonness between different languages or dialects.Chinese directional verbs have both commonness and uniqueness among different dialects.Only by deeply understanding their commonness and uniqueness can we better understand the nature and function of Chinese directional verbs.Moreover,directional complement is just one of the functions of “xià ‘down'+V”.In order to have a better understanding of this directional verb,it also has to explore the other functions of it.For example,the multifunction of “xià ‘down'” in “xià ‘down'+N” construction.In view of this,this paper focuses on “xià ‘down'” in “xià ‘down'+N” and in “V+xià ‘down'” construction mainly focusing on examining the multifunctionality of “xià‘down'”.Therefore,based on the previous research,this thesis adopts collostructional analysis,combined with the semantic map model,attempting to answer the following three questions:(1)What are the semantics of “xià ‘down'” in “xià ‘down'+N” construction?(2)What are the semantics of “xià ‘down'” in “V + xià ‘down'” construction?(3)What is the semantic map model of “xià ‘down'”?The main findings are as follows:First,according to the different nouns that can enter “xià ‘down'+N” construction,we find that “xià ‘down'” in “xià ‘down'+N” construction has 12 different meanings,such as the meaning of “directional movement”,“precipitating”,“going or arriving” and so on.Second,according to the different verbs that can enter “V+ xià ‘down'”construction,we find that when “xià ‘down'” is used as a directional complement,it has three different meanings: directional meaning,consequence meaning and metaphorical meaning in nonspatial domain,and the relationship among these three meanings is :directional meaning?consequence meaning?metaphorical meaning in nonspatial domain.Third,through the contrast between mandarin Chinese and different dialects,this paper establishes a conceptual space for the semantics of “xià ‘down'” as directional verb and directional complement.Finally,this conceptual space is used as a base map on which the semantic maps of “xià ‘down'” in Guiyang,Jinan,Harbin and Urumqi dialects are drawn.