Abstract
Taking the synonymous verbs lā (拉), zhuài (拽), and tuō (拖)as examples, this paper shows that image-schema analysis can help us better analyze the semantics of related verbs and find the semantic differences of synonymous motion verbs on this basis. Firstly, we review the analysis methods of motion meaning and illustrate the advantages of image-schema analysis in analyzing the semantics of motion verbs. Secondly, based on summarizing the image schema, we make a semantic analysis of the verb tuō. The verb tuō can be divided into three senses branches: (1) the agent forced the trajector to move in the direction of the agent; (2) the trajector is sagging (state meaning); (3) the trajector away from the landmark (generating meaning). Then, drawing on the research of Yin Changle (2018, 2021) on the verbs lā and zhuài, the article compares the differences between the synonymous verbs lā, zhuài,and tuō from the image schema and summarizes the differences in semantics. Finally, the paper illustrates the role of image schema in clarifying polysemy and semantic differences.
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Notes
- 1.
The examples listed in this paper are mainly from the modern Chinese corpus of the Chinese Linguistics Research Center (CCL) of Peking University, the modern Chinese corpus of Beijing Language and Culture University (BCC) and relevant literatures.
- 2.
Due to the length limitation, this paper only shows this schema.3D indicates that the trajector is three-dimensional. A indicates that the landmark is the agent’s location. G/ S indicates that the trajector is close to the ground or the surface of other objects.
- 3.
P indicates that the trajector is a part of the agent, and C indicates that the agent and the trajector coincide.
- 4.
DR indicates that the trajector drops.
- 5.
AF indicates that the trajector is away from the landmark.
- 6.
In this context, the English translation of the Chinese verb lā and zhuài is the same ("pull"). Sentence (13) and sentence (14) are the same as sentence(12).
- 7.
- 8.
Another difference between the verbs lā and zhuài is that in the same context, zhuài tends to have higher strength than lā in. Such as:
(1) a. 她 拉 着 平板车 往 前 走。
3sg pull ZHE flatbed forward walk She pulled the flatbed forward.
b. 她 毫不费力 地 拉 着 平板车 往 前 走。
3sg without difficulty DE pull ZHE flatbed forward walk.
She pulled the flatbed car forward without difficulty.
(2) a. 她 拽 着 平板车 往 前 走。
3sg drag ZHE flatbed forward walk She dragged the flatbed forward.
b.* 她 毫不费力 地 拽 着 平板车 往前 走。
3sg without difficulty DE pull ZHE flatbed forward walk.
She dragged the flatbed car forward without difficulty.
- 9.
In this context, the English translation of the Chinese verb zhuài and tuō is the same ("drag").
- 10.
In sentence (19)-(21), the English translation of the Chinese verb tuō and zhuài is the same ("drag").
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Acknowledgments
This research project is supported by Science Foundation of Beijing Language and Culture University (supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”) (No. 22YBB41), Beijing Philosophy and Social Sciences Youth Fund Project under the grant “A Study of Emphatic Markers Based on Beijing Natural Spoken Language Corpus” (No.19YYC019) and the Academic Research Projects of Beijing Union University (No. SK70202101). All errors remain my own.
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Yin, C. (2023). Exploration of the Semantic Differences of Motion Verbs from the Perspective of Image Schemas——Taking the Verbs “lā”, “ zhuài” and “tuō” as Examples. In: Su, Q., Xu, G., Yang, X. (eds) Chinese Lexical Semantics. CLSW 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13495. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28953-8_37
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