A Study On The Directional Verbs In Thai Language

Thai is an isolated language.Directional verbs are a special kind of verbs with a limited number,and Thai directional verbs are often located after verbs or adjectives expressing rich meanings in addition to indicating a tendency to move,each with a distinctive personality and with some special phenomena in their use and development.This paper takes three groups of six simple directional verbs in modern Thai:pai³³and ma:³³,kh（?）n⁵¹and lo（?）³³,khau⁵¹and（?）:k²¹as the research object,and analyses their syntactic and semantic functions through descriptions and studies the asymmetry of the two convergent verbs in each group when they express multifunctional semantics.The aim is to show that there are general patterns and differences in the development of Thai directional verbs,to reveal the reasons for their semantic asymmetries,and to lay a foundation for the study of the origins of directional verbs in the context of Thai predicate grammar.The study in this paper consists of three aspects:First,grouping describes the semantic and syntactic functions of the six directional verbs.The study shows that the basic function of Thai directional verbs is to express the trend sense of actual spatial displacement,while the other meanings are derived from the trend sense to indicate other categories such as state,degree,and time,etc.Among the six directional verbs,pai³³and ma:³³have the highest degree of generalization;The multifunctional semantics of each directional verb are related,and there are different features in their developmental evolution.Secondly,grouping depicts the asymmetry of the multifunctional semantics of the three groups of directional verbs.The study shows that the action semantics of the convergent verbs are weakened and falls off when they are located in the latter part of the linking structure,and that there is an asymmetry in the semantic and syntactic functions of the verbs;specifically,the position between pairs of directional verbs in each group cannot be replaced;there is an asymmetry in the functions of the extended meanings of the two directional verbs;and there is an asymmetry in the collocation of the two directional verbs with the core verbs.Finally,the causes of the above asymmetries are analyzed from multiple perspectives.The study shows that the asymmetry of directional verbs in Thai is influenced by various factors such as the directional semantic features of the core verbs,the core semantics of the directional verbs,the reference point of the narrative subject,the cognitive habits of human behavior.