REGULARITY AND IDIOMATICITY IN CHINESE DIRECTIONAL CONSTRUCTIONS: A CASE STUDY ON "V+LAI/GUO/GUOLAI"

This study aims to investigate how self-motion Manner verbs and Path verbs (lai/guo/guolai) compose directional complement constructions. First, forty-seven Manner verbs constructed with lai/guo/guolai in high frequency were extracted from the COCT corpus. Next, we applied “Aspectual Classification” to distinguish Manner verbs and used “Scale Structure” to analyze Path verbs. Besides, we analyzed the lexical semantics of Manner verbs, e.g. the entailment of Path, Result or Translational movement. The results showed that Path verbs with deictic elements (e.g., guolai) can be constructed with various types of Manner verbs. Contrarily, typical Manner verbs which do not entail path or result semantics can be constructed with more Path verbs (e.g., zou ‘walk’). We propose the hierarchy of the elements which affect the construction of directional complements in the following order: [±Dynamic] >[±Translational] >[±Path]. The Manner verbs which are non-dynamic can only combine with the “V-guolai” construction while those with two-point or process path features can combine with “V-guo”. Those containing the expected results can combine with “V-lai”. Overall, the properties of Manner and Path verbs will affect the construction of directional complements.