A Study of Semantics and Syntax of Mandarin "qi-lai"

• Main Authors: Ruo-Hong Chang DONDEY, 張若虹
• Other Authors: Teng, Shou-hsin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/25403264727699200996

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 華語文教學研究所 === 98 === 　　Post-verbal components, generally known as “verbal complements of direction”, are a characteristic construction of modern Mandarin Chinese. Among them, “qi-lai” has the greatest complexity in terms of semantic and syntactic characteristics, and therefore is harder for learners to acquire and easier for them to misuse than other post-verbal components. 　“Qi-lai” has been studied several times in the past. Most studies only dealt with qi-lai’s semantic and syntactic properties and provided comprehensive descriptions of qi-lai; however, there is no adequate account for the cause of qi-lai’s polysemy, and the interaction of qi-lai’s different meanings has not been researched so far. 　 We suggest that post-verbal component qi-lai’s core meaning originates from its use as a verb, as is the case with other post-verbal components. Although qi-lai has very different, even apparently irrelevant semantic functions, all of its meanings are internally linked to one another by means of mechanisms of image schema, metaphor and metonymy. The direction of qi-lai’s extension follows the universal principle from concrete to abstract and from space to time. Therefore, qi-lai operates as a complete, whole concept in native speakers’ mental dictionary despite its complicated semantic properties. 　This thesis aims to determine post-verbal component qi-lai’s core meaning and to reason out its semantic network based on human beings’ cognition. 　The goals of this thesis are as follows: firstly, to redefine qi-lai syntactically; secondly, to build qi-lai’s frame of semantic properties; and lastly, to analyse qi-lai’s semantic and syntactic characteristics systematically.