Abstract
This study interprets the motion events in Old Chinese from the perspective of Old Chinese instead of linguistic typology. We discuss the motion events in Old Chinese under the following topics: the characteristics of motion verbs and the patterns of their composition. When analyzing the characteristics of motion verbs and the patterns of their composition, the previous studies rely on the semantic elements which used in linguistic typology, while we rely on the distinctive features extracted from the constructions that consist of motion verbs. Based on the collocation of motion verbs, the composition of motion verbs and yú preposition phrase, the compounding [suǒ v] and the causativization of motion verbs, we propose that the motion verbs in Old Chinese can be classified into three main categories, namely “process”, “achievement” and “state”. Basically, the semantic feature of process type is “go”, the semantic feature of achievement type is either “leave”, “arrive” or “pass”, and the semantic feature of state type is “stay”. These semantic features play an important role in all types of composition and collocation of motion verbs. We conclude that there are two types of composition of motion verbs, namely serial-verb construction and parallel-verb construction. The former is a composite of above-mentioned semantic features following The Principle of Temporal Sequence, and its fundamental sequence is “leave-go-pass-arrive-stay”. On the other hand, the latter is a composite of semantic features of the same type. Besides, we also propose a new concept of “the most direct semantic role”, and suggest that compounding [suǒ v] normally refer to “the most direct semantic role” of motion verbs, while yú preposition phrase generally refer to the semantic role other than “the most direct semantic role”.