The Study On Symmetry And Asymmetry Phenomenon Of "Guolai" And "Guoqu"

"Directional Verb" is a special but small kind of the Chinese verbs and it is used to explain the developing directions of some actions or objects. The main grammar function of the directional verb is to be predicates or complements after predicate. Based on the frequencies of the actual uses, complement is the main usage of the directional verb."Guolai" and "Guoqu" is a pair of special compound directional verbs full of meanings and usages. This thesis aims to do some research on the symmetry and asymmetry of the two words when using as complements in a sentence. The word "Guolai" means that the direction of the action turns towards the reference point but "Guoqu" means opposite. The words’meanings of the direction have some correspondence but there are some differences of the extend meanings, including symmetry and asymmetry. Thus, the words corresponding to them also have their characteristics. From Description start, this thesis deeply researches the reasons of symmetry and asymmetry of the words "Guolai" and "Guoqu".This thesis mainly discusses the semantic classification of the compound directional verbs,"Guolai" and "Guoqu", when the words use as complements and the selection restrictions when they correspond to some verbs or adjectives. Besides the preface, this thesis has four parts:Chapter1mainly focuses on the directional meanings of the words,"Guolai" and "Guoqu", and the meaning of the reference point. Reference point is a concept exiting in the subject and the location of the reference point is influenced by the spatial factors and time factors. And the spatial factors and time factors are defined by the speaker’s point of view. Besides, the speaker’s cognition of the components of the spatial displacement system also effects the location of the reference point.Chapter2discusses the significance symmetry and asymmetry in three cases when the two words use as complement in the references of the spatial location, time location and the speaker’s cognitions.Chapter3analyzes and researches the symmetry and asymmetry relationship of the two words’form and meaning when they use as complement in three cases:form and meaning are both symmetry; form is symmetry but meaning is asymmetry; meaning is symmetry and form is asymmetry. The two words’ symmetry of directional meaning corresponds to the symmetry of two words’ form and meaning in the complement constructions.Chapter4does some research on the functional symmetry and asymmetry when the two words use as complement. The selection of the verbs corresponding to the two words,"Guolai" and "Guoqu", involves the boundedness and unboundedness of the spatial domain and time domain and based on this, the thesis analyzes the characteristic of the verbs corresponding to the two words. The displacement verbs corresponding to the two words are always bounded in the two ends, which means it has both starting point and ending point, the reference point can exchanges and the word means spatial displacement. The verbs only correspond to the word,"Guolai", are always unbounded in front-end but bound in back-end. On the opposite, the verbs only correspond to the word,"Guoqu", are always bounded in front-end but unbound in back-end. In the grammar construction," V+guo+N(location)+lai/qu", the objects meaning location have no influences on the start point and end point and they just mean a process. Thus, this construction’s symmetry is the same as the symmetry of the construction,"Vguolai/qu", when it means spatial displacement.The last chapter analyzes and researches the reasons of the symmetry and asymmetry when the two words,"Guolai" and "Guoqu", use as complement and the analysis and research mainly focus on the reasons of asymmetry. The asymmetry has much relationship with the speaker’s cognition, evaluation standards, pro-conventional psychology, physiological basis and the characteristics of the verbs corresponding to the two words.