Cover not available
Article published In:
Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 6:2 (2015) ► pp.162–182

Conceptual autonomy and dependence in Chinese lexical semantic analysis

The role of image-schema, conceptual domains and co-text in [v]–[shang]

| Masaryk University
The present study addresses the rate of conceptual autonomy and dependence in Chinese lexical semantic analysis, presenting an analysis of how image-schema, domains and co-text interact in the [v]–[shang] construction as an example. Following a Principled Polysemy methodology, I identify the semantic prototype and four metaphorical senses of the construction. I also show the co-textual characteristics associated with each sense, which opens up further discussion of how image-schema and conceptual domains collaborate to produce the various senses. Based on these findings, I further establish a hierarchy of influence from co-text, where the semantics of an RVC depends first of all on its collocating verb and secondarily on a collocating noun phrase. This paper aims to show in some detail how image-schema, conceptual domains and patterns of co-text co-contribute to the polysemy of RVCs. It moreover proposes a novel way of analyzing Chinese lexical semantics in terms of conceptual autonomy and dependence.
Keywords: conceptual autonomy, co-text, conceptual dependence, conceptual domain, image-schema, polysemy, resultative verb construction
Published online: 28 January 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.6.2.03lu
References (48)
Ahrens, Kathleen, and Chu-Ren Huang. 2002. “Time Passing is Motion.” Language and Linguistics 31: 491–519.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-ren. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chang, Chiao-ling. 2007. A Comparative Study on the Verb qi-lai in MANDARIN Chinese and Taiwan Southern Min. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Kaohsiung: National Sun Yat-sen University.Google Scholar
Chang, Ruo-hong. 2010. A Study of Semantics and Syntax of Mandarin qi-lai. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University.Google Scholar
Chang, Shen-min. 1994. V-qilai Construction in Mandarin Chinese: A Study for their Semantics and Syntax. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Hsinchu: National Tsinghua University.Google Scholar
Chou, Tsai-jung. 1999. A Study of Polysemous Words Shang and Xia in Chinese. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Hsinchu: National Tsinghua University.Google Scholar
Chung, Siaw-Fong, Jia-fei Hong, and Chu-Ren Huang. 2006. “Meaning Extensions of shang in Mandarin as Predictor of Events Categorization.” Presented in the 14th IACL in Conjunction with 10th IsCLL . Taipei: Academic Sinica.
Croft, William. 1993. “The Role of Domains in the Interpretation of Metaphors and Metonymies.” Cognitive Linguistics 41.335–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Vyvyan. 2004. The Structure of Time: Language, Meaning and Temporal Cognition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
He, Baozhang. 1992. Situation Types and Aspectual Classes of Verbs in Mandarin Chinese. Columbus: The Ohio State University dissertation.Google Scholar
Hsieh, Chun-ching. 2013. A Study of the Efficacy of Polysemy Networks and Image Schemas in Teaching Motion Verbs, Fictive Verbs, and Modal Verbs in a FL Classroom. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Taipei: Tamkang University.Google Scholar
Huang, Chu-ren, and Shen-min Chang. 1996. “Metaphor, Metaphorical Extension, and Grammaticalization: A Study of Mandarin Chinese -qilai .” In Conceptual Structure, Discourse, and Language, ed. by Adele Goldberg, 201–216. Stanford: CSLI, and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Mark. 1987. The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason. Chicago: Chicago University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, Huey-chia. 2005. Semantic Networks of Shang and Xia in Mandarin Chinese: A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Taichung: Providence University.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Volume 11. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
. 1990. Concept, Image and Symbol. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Charles N., and Sandra Thompson. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Li, Ming Yi. 1999. A Semantic Study of Modern Chinese Localizer Shang. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University.Google Scholar
Li, Alfred Chen-fu. 1999. On Mandarin Directional Verbs qilai, xiaqu, and shanglai: A Reflection of Grammaticalization. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Taipei: National Chengchi University.Google Scholar
Lien, Chinfa. 2006. “Directional Constructions in Li Jing Ji.” Language and Linguistics 7 (4): 755–98.Google Scholar
Liu, Mei-chun. 1997. “Conceptual Basis and Categorial Structure: A Study of Mandarin V-R Compounds as a Radial Category.” Chinese Languages and Linguistics 41: 462–473. Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar
Liu, Yuehua. 1998. Quxiang buyu tongshi [A general introduction to directional complements]. Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press.Google Scholar
Liu, Yuehua, Wenyu Pan, and Hua Gu. 1996. Modern Chinese Grammar. Taipei: Shida Book.Google Scholar
Lu, John Hsiao-tung. 1977. “Resultative Verb Compound vs. Directional Verb Compound in Mandarin.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 51: 276–313.Google Scholar
Lu, Shu-xiang. 1999. Xiandai hanyu babai ci [Eight hundred words in Modern Chinese]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Lu, Shu-mei. 2002. Resultatives in Mandarin Chinese and English: A Construction Grammar Approach. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Chiayi: National Chung-Cheng University.Google Scholar
Lu, L. Wei-lun. 2008. “From Textual Prompts to Cognitive Models: A Context-oriented Perspective on Metaphor Interpretation in Taiwanese Presidential Speeches.” Language and Linguistics 91.341–58.Google Scholar
. 2011. Conceptual Exploration of Polysemy: A Case Study of [V] – [UP] and [v]–[shang]. Unpublished Dissertation. Taipei: National Taiwan University.Google Scholar
Lu, Wei-lun L., and Lily I-wen Su. 2012. “Antonymous Polysemy: The Case of –shang in Mandarin.” In Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Cross-cultural Communication, ed. by Adam Bednarek, 36–50. München: Lincom Europa Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Lu, Wei-lun. 2015. “A Cognitive Linguistics Approach to Teaching Chinese Spatial Particles: From Contrastive Constructional Analysis to Material Design.” In Cognitive Linguistics and Sociocultural Theory, ed. by Kyoko Masuda and Carlee Arnett, 51–72. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. forthcoming. “A Constructional Approach to Conceptual Metaphor: The Case of completion is up in Chinese.” In Studies in Figurative Thought and Language (Human Cognitive Processing Series), ed. by Angeliki Athanasiadou. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Moore, Kevin Ezra. 2000. Spatial Experience and Temporal Metaphors in Wolof: Point of View, Conceptual Mapping, and Linguistic Practice. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley.Google Scholar
Packard, Jerome L. 2000. The Morphology of Chinese: A Linguistic and Cognitive Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ross, Claudia. 1990. “Resultative Verb Compounds.” Journal of the Chinese Language Teacher’s Association 251: 61–83.Google Scholar
Starosta, Stanley, Koenraad Kuiper, Siew-ai Ng, and Zhi-qian Wu. 1997. “On Defining the Chinese Compound Word: Headedness in Chinese Compounding and Chinese VR Compounds.” In New approaches to Chinese word formation: Morphology, phonology and the lexicon in modern and ancient Chinese, ed. by Jerome L. Packard, 347–370. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Su, Chen-hui. 1997. The Semantic Versatility of Mandarin Morphemes Shang and Xia: A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis. Unpublished M.A. thesis. Taichung: Providence University.Google Scholar
Tai, James H.Y. 2003. “Cognitive Relativism: Resultative Constructions in Chinese.” Language and Linguistics 4 (2): 301–316.Google Scholar
Teng, Shou-hsin. 1977. “A Grammar of Verb-particle in Chinese.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 51: 1–25.Google Scholar
Thepkanjana, Kingkarn, and Satoshi Uehara. 2015. “Effects of Constituent Orders on Functional Extension Patterns of the Verbs for ‘Give’: A Contrastive Study of Thai and Mandarin Chinese.” Language and Linguistics 16 (1): 43–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A. 1973. “Resultative Verb Compounds in Mandarin Chinese: A Case for Lexical Rules.” Language 491: 361–379. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsai, Meng-chun. 2008. On the Uses of Mandarin Chinese qi-lai. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Hsinchu: National Chiao Tung University.Google Scholar
Tsai, Pei-ting. 2005. On “kai” and its Extensions in Modern Chinese. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University.Google Scholar
Tyler, Andrea, and VyVyan Evans. 2003. The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Ben Pin-yun. 2009. From Usage to Construction: A Cognitive Linguistic Study on the Polysemous V-kai Resultative verbs in Mandarin Chinese. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. National Taiwan University.Google Scholar
Wang, Ben Pin-yun, and Lily I-wen Su. 2015. “On the Principled Polysemy of kai in Chinese Resultative Verbs.” Chinese Language and Discourse 6 (1): 2–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Niina Ning. 2001. “The Structures of Depictive and Resultative Constructions in Chinese.” ZAS Papers in Linguistics 221. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese, accessible at: [URL]
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Knotková, Magdaléna & Wei-lun Lu
2020. Rendering, generalization and variation. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 7:1 ► pp. 201 ff. DOI logo
Knotková, Magdaléna & Wei-lun Lu
2022. Rendering, generalization and variation. In Visual Metaphors [Benjamins Current Topics, 124], ► pp. 209 ff. DOI logo
Lu, Wei-lun
2017. Chapter 9. Metaphor, conceptual archetypes and subjectification. In Studies in Figurative Thought and Language [Human Cognitive Processing, 56], ► pp. 232 ff. DOI logo
Lu, Wei-lun
2017. Cultural Conceptualisations of death in Taiwanese Buddhist and Christian Eulogistic Idioms. In Advances in Cultural Linguistics [Cultural Linguistics, ], ► pp. 49 ff. DOI logo
Lu, Wei-lun
2022. A Conceptual Exploration of Polysemy: A Case Study of [V] – [UP] and [V] – [SHANG], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.