RESULTATIVITY AND MANDARIN CHINESE DIRECTIONAL VERB COMPOUNDS
RESULTATIVITY AND MANDARIN CHINESE DIRECTIONAL VERB COMPOUNDS

Summary/Abstract: Resultativity in natural language is closely tied to the category of aspect. It is semantically closeto the perfective aspect, so it often receives little attention. The focus of this discussion is primarilyon syntax, specifically how this category is realised in a sentence. Due to the typological differ-ences between Mandarin Chinese and English or other Indo-European languages, the descriptionof resultatives has to be oriented towards Chinese syntax, particularly Resultative Verb Compounds(RVCs). In addition to these verb-complement syntagmas, Directional Verb Compounds (DVCs) arealso common in MC. Although directionality is not typically considered a category related to aspector resultativity, there are visible similarities between Chinese RVCs and DVCs. This article aimsto provide a general framework that outlines these categories and similarities between them. Thesemantic approach is especially relevant to this discussion, which adopts a basis of semantic researchcombined with cognitive linguistics.

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