Abstract

Directional verb phrase is an important pattern in Chinese.It is featured of high frequency, rich semantic meanings, and various syntactic forms.Previous research has not studied the directional verb phrase from the categorization perspective.Guided by the theories of cognitive linguistics, this book positions the directional verb phrase in the continuum of causatives.Through systematic analysis of its cognitive semantic categorizations, sub-groups of verbs, semantic transfer, and the symmetry and the asymmetry of the semantics, directional characteristics, this book aims to summarize the rules of semantic connections and reveal their similarities and particularities, thus contributing to the foundational theoretical research on verbs and verb structures.The book is consisted of nine chapters as below.

Chapter 1.Introduction. This chapter reviews and comments the current progress of relevant research.The goal, content, methodology and framework of this study are also stated.

Chapter 2.The cognitive semantic foundations of the causativity of directional verb phrase. In this chapter, we use the schema-based categorization theory to explore the cognitive foundation of the directional verb phrase, and propose that the directional verb phrase originates from the motionpath schema.We argue that the five-dimensioned moving path in shape change, distance, direction, source point-the end punctuation and mobile perspective shows the metaphorical mapping from space to time and status dimension.Based on this, we can locate coordinates of different directional complements in a holistic and systematical manner.The motion-path schema is conceptualized as causative motion scenarios, which are mapped into languages, thus endowing the semantic structures and components with features of cognitive semantics, and defining the scope of a directional verb.

Chapter 3.The syntactic semantics framework of the causativity of directional verb phrase. Through restricting the objective variables(the cognitive patterns of motion and path, the direction of causative force, and its intention), as well as the subjective variables(observation perspective, forms of scanning, sequence of figure and ground, attributions) in causative scenarios, we analyze the syntactic semantic diversity of directional verb phrase.According to the motionpath, we categorize directional verbs into destination focused group(dao到/shang上/lai来/jin进/hui回), passing point focused and destination focused group(guo过), destination focused and starting-point group(xia下), starting-point and destination focused group(chu出/qu去/qi起 ), and starting-point focused group（kai开）.

Chapter 4, 5: The generalization and grammaticalization of the causativity of directional verb phrase. In these chapters, with the cognitive domain as the axis, combined with the syntactic semantic attributions such as the amount of the features of prototype categorizations, the extent of subjectivity, the expansion of verb sub-categories, and the change in syntactic collocations, we will discuss the process of generalization and grammaticalization of different directional verb phrase through synchronized simulation and diachronic verification.We argue that the causativity of directional verb phrase gradually decreases from space to time and status dimension, while the subjectivity increases.Meanwhile, limited by the five dimensions of motion and path, various cognitive semantic categories have been generated.

Chapter 6.Analysis of symmetry and asymmetry of the causativity of directional verb phrase. From the perspectives of semantics, verb collocations, syntax, use frequency, and etc., this chapter discusses simple directional verb phrases that have synonyms and antonyms, complex directional verb phrases that have different standpoints, and symmetry and asymmetry of complex directional verb phrases and their corresponding simple directional verb phrases.We hope to explain such phenomenon considering the factors such as cognitive domain, principles of language economy, the subjective features of“lai来/qu去 ”（close/ remote, visible/invisible, expected/unexpected）, motion-schema features, and etc.

Chapter 7.Study of directional features of verbs and its subcategories. Drawing from the theory of frame semantics and based on the judgment of cognitive semantics, this chapter summarizes the features of resultative direction of verbs through the semantic framework of verb/ adjective, and the prototype collocation of verbs and directions.Relying on The Dictionary of Verb Usages of Chinese and The Dictionary of Adjective Usages of Chinese, we explore the bidirectional restrictions on semantic choices of directional verb phrases in details, and create the corresponding glossaries of verbs and adjectives.

Chapter 8.Analysis of the expressional functions of special forms of directional verb phrases. Focusing on the causativity expressed by the special forms such as“ V+shangqu上去/V+qilai起来 /V+lai来+AP/VP”“ V lai来V qu去”“hua话（you又，zai再）shuo hui lai说回来”, this chapter analyzes the interaction between verb and construction, and explain the mechanism of constructions and their pragmatic functions.

Chapter 9.Conclusion.This chapter summarizes the breakthroughs and achievements of this study. The book mainly solves the issues of the semantic correlation of directional verb phrase and its two-way collocation, but more indepth research is required in the fields of comparative analysis and historical evolutions.

Keywords: directional verb phrase, motion-path Schema, causativity, directional features, generalization and grammaticalization, symmetry and asymmetry