Multifunctionality And Semantic Maps Of "UP":A Cross-linguistic Study

As an important construction in modern Chinese,"V+ shang" construction has always attracted much attention.Previous studies mainly discussed the "V+ shang" construction from two perspectives: synchronic analysis and diachronic analysis.The synchronic study focused on the basic semantics,semantic extension,syntactic semantic constraints of "V+ shang" construction and its comparison with other directional complements,while the diachronic study mainly discussed the origin and development of "shang" and "V+ shang".Previous researches mainly applied the introspection method.In contrast,lack of the cross-linguistic quantitative analyses based on different corpora.This thesis will explore the "V+ UP" construction in Chinese,English,Russian and Japanese,and explore the different semantics or functions of "UP" in these constructions.In order to establish a cross-linguistic conceptual space and corresponding semantic maps,this thesis involves the following research questions:(1)What lexical and semantic functions does "UP" have in the constructions of "V+ UP" in Chinese,English,Russian and Japanese respectively?(2)What are the conceptual space and semantic maps of "UP" ?(3)What are the cross-linguistic commonalities and diversities of "UP" in the "V+UP" constructions?Through cross-linguistic comparison and analysis of the application of the lexical concept UP in the constructions of "V+ UP",this thesis draws the following conclusions:First of all,this thesis attempts to analyze the multifunctionality of "UP" in the "V+UP" construction and its application based on corpora containing BNC,COCA,BCC,CCL,NLT and RNC,as well as modern Chinese Dictionary,Cambridge English Dictionary,Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries,Collins Dictionary,Jisho,Tangorin,Open Russian etc.Through the analysis of Chinese,English,Russian,and Japanese corpora and dictionaries,we can conclude that "UP" has semantic and grammatical multifunctionality.Its semantic and grammatical functions are mainly classified into three kinds: directional meaning,resultative meaning and stative meaning.On this basis,this paper further subdivides these three categories of meaning into various semantics or functions.The multifunctionality of "UP" in the "V+ UP" construction is various and complex.Directional meaning refers to movement from a lower position to a higher position,approach to a target object,or action or behavior from a subordinate to a superordinate.The multifunctional morpheme "UP" as resultative meaning refers to connection,the achievement of an objective,and the completion of a particular motion or state.When "UP" is used as stative meaning,it can be used as the fulfillment of a particular action and state,or the beginning of an action and state after the completion of the action or state,as well as a grammatical marker of continuation or a grammatical marker of motion completion.Secondly,according to the implicational relationship between semantic and grammatical functions of lexical concept “UP” in Chinese,English,Russian and Japanese,this investigation intends to establish the conceptual space and semantic maps for shang,up,вверх,上げる/上がる on the basis of the conceptual space and the“Semantic Map Connectivity Hypothesis”.In addition,a cross-linguistic semantic map of "UP" is also built up.Meanwhile,we can conclude that the multifunction morpheme UP in different languages cuts out different connected regions in the conceptual space.In other words,because "UP" in different languages has different semantic and grammatical functions,the multifunction morpheme "UP" in each language presents different connected regions in the conceptual space.Finally,this thesis attempts to explain universalities and diversities of semantic maps among separate languages from the conceptual metaphor theory.It is concluded that due to differences in social culture and cognitive style the development of the conceptual metaphors for a specific language appears to be language-specific.Thus,the multifunctional morpheme UP in different language has different semantic and grammatical functions.