A diachronic study on the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective
This study explores the diachronic development of the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective. By analyzing data retrieved from the CCL corpus spanning 15 Chinese dynasties (1046 BCE-1920s), this study reveals that guòlái ‘come over’ can be initial...
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De Gruyter
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Cognitive Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2024-0026 |
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| author | Yang Yuhang Li Fuyin Thomas |
| author_facet | Yang Yuhang Li Fuyin Thomas |
| author_sort | Yang Yuhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study explores the diachronic development of the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective. By analyzing data retrieved from the CCL corpus spanning 15 Chinese dynasties (1046 BCE-1920s), this study reveals that guòlái ‘come over’ can be initially traced back to the pattern guò N (ér) lái, where guò and lái functioned as distinct motion verbs. It then served as a motion verb, which subsequently grammaticalized into a directional complement. The diachronic evolution of the macro-event types represented by the V guòlái construction can tentatively be described as: Motion Event > Event of Realization > Event of State Change / Event of Action Correlating (> Event of Temporal Contouring). This study further proposes the Unidirectional Progression Hypothesis concerning the entire closed set of directional complements, suggesting that Mandarin directional complements evolve both in form and meaning along a unidirectional trajectory, becoming syntactically tighter and semantically more abstract. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6f8769ee5ad3472d9500cbfbf4d5da07 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0936-5907 1613-3641 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cognitive Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj-art-6f8769ee5ad3472d9500cbfbf4d5da072025-08-25T06:10:17ZengDe GruyterCognitive Linguistics0936-59071613-36412025-05-0136226129710.1515/cog-2024-0026A diachronic study on the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspectiveYang Yuhang0Li Fuyin Thomas1School of Foreign Languages, 12633Beihang University, 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, ChinaSchool of Foreign Languages, 12633Beihang University, 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, ChinaThis study explores the diachronic development of the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective. By analyzing data retrieved from the CCL corpus spanning 15 Chinese dynasties (1046 BCE-1920s), this study reveals that guòlái ‘come over’ can be initially traced back to the pattern guò N (ér) lái, where guò and lái functioned as distinct motion verbs. It then served as a motion verb, which subsequently grammaticalized into a directional complement. The diachronic evolution of the macro-event types represented by the V guòlái construction can tentatively be described as: Motion Event > Event of Realization > Event of State Change / Event of Action Correlating (> Event of Temporal Contouring). This study further proposes the Unidirectional Progression Hypothesis concerning the entire closed set of directional complements, suggesting that Mandarin directional complements evolve both in form and meaning along a unidirectional trajectory, becoming syntactically tighter and semantically more abstract.https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2024-0026mandarincomplex directional complementsthe macro-event hypothesisdiachronythe unidirectional progression hypothesis |
| spellingShingle | Yang Yuhang Li Fuyin Thomas A diachronic study on the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective Cognitive Linguistics mandarin complex directional complements the macro-event hypothesis diachrony the unidirectional progression hypothesis |
| title | A diachronic study on the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective |
| title_full | A diachronic study on the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective |
| title_fullStr | A diachronic study on the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective |
| title_full_unstemmed | A diachronic study on the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective |
| title_short | A diachronic study on the Mandarin complex directional complement guòlái ‘come over’ from the macro-event perspective |
| title_sort | diachronic study on the mandarin complex directional complement guolai come over from the macro event perspective |
| topic | mandarin complex directional complements the macro-event hypothesis diachrony the unidirectional progression hypothesis |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2024-0026 |
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