A Constructionalization Approach To The Chinese Verb-direction Construction "V Chu(出)"

Chinese verb-direction construction is an important syntactic structure in Chinese grammar.Owing to its complexity and particularity,it attracts much attention from scholars.The previous scholars studied it from different perspectives.From the perspective of the valence theory and function grammar,scholars studied semantic patterns and syntactic patterns.From the perspective of cognitive linguistics,scholars studied its grammaticalization process,grammaticalization meaning,and grammaticalization mechanisms.However,as fas as the construction “V chu(出)”,there is no consensus on how the constructionalization meaning of “V chu(出)” evolves and what the evolutionary motivations and mechanisms of “chu(出)” are.Thus,based on the constructionalization theory,this study will take the constructionalization characteristics of “V chu(出)” as the starting point,and then explore the motivations and mechanisms in the diachronic evolutionary path.The research object is “V chu(出)”.The study aims to solve the following questions:(1)What are the characteristics of the verb-direction construction “V chu(出)” as it develops over time?(2)What are the motivations of the verb-direction construction “V chu(出)” that trigger its change?(3)What are the mechanisms of the verb-direction construction “V chu(出)” in the process of change?The corpus selected in the study is from “cncorpus”,including Ancient Chinese Corpus and Contemporary Chinese Corpus.First,this study collects the corpus from eight ancient periods and modern periods.Then,the observations and classifications of them are made.What’s more,the study analyzes the constructionalization characteristics of “V chu(出)”based on the theory proposed by Traugott and Trousdale.Finally,the study analyzes the motivations and mechanisms of them.Through analysis,this study comes to these findings:(1)from a diachronic perspective,as for the characteristics of“V chu(出)”,it has a high level of schematicity and productivity and a low level of compositionality;(2)the motivation of“V chu(出)”is the context of constructionalization and differentiation of meaning;In the constructionalizaion of form,syntactic fusion creates the context of constructionalizaion,thus providing the possibility for a human to make neoanalysis.In the constructionalization of meaning,the continual activation and use of the meaning of“arrival”make“chu(出)”evolve the meaning of“realization”.(3)the mechanisms of“V chu(出)”is metaphor,neoanalysis and analogization.Through metaphor,“V chu(出)”evolves the resultative meaning of“from latent to obvious”and“from nothing to something”from the directional meaning of“from inside to outside”.Through neoanalysis,“V(chu(出)O)”turns to“(V chu(出))O”.The structure of“V O chu(出)”turns to“V chu(出)O”.Through analogization,the structures of“chu(出)O”“chu er(出而)V”“V er chu(而出)”“chu(出)V”help“V chu(出)”become conventionalized.The study on the constructionlization of “V chu(出)” can enrich the study on the evolution path of it,giving references to studies on other directional complements.This study can also help Mandarin learners understand the evolution path and cognitive mechanism of “V chu(出)”,and then grasp the linguistic difficult construction better.