Abstract
The deictic motion verbs ‘to come’ and ‘to go’, originally, are a pair of intransitive verbs, which show the motion of figure of which the speaker is the deictic center. However, a host of meanings of the deictic motion verbs have been derived through grammaticalization. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the polysemy of the deictic motion verbs lai5 ‘to come’ and khi3 ‘to go’ in Taiwan Southern Min. In our data, we have observed that the deictic motion verbs lai5 ‘to come’ and khi3 ‘to go’ in Taiwan Southern Min, in addition to their spatial and directional meanings, have derived non-spatial meanings through grammaticalization. That is, these two verbs (i.e., lai5 ‘to come’ and khi3 ‘to go’), in the non-spatial sense, can be used to express the speaker’s subjective evaluation and mood. However, when the deictic motion verbs occur in different positions of a construction, their meanings are found to change. In order to examine the different uses of the deictic motion verbs lai5 ‘to come’ and khi3 ‘to go’ in Taiwan Southern Min, we have adopted the construction grammar in our analysis. This study finally concludes that the polysemy of the deictic motion verbs lai5 ‘to come’ and khi3 ‘to go’ in Taiwan Southern Min is concerned with their interaction with other elements in the construction. As for the organization of the present study, Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 reviews a handful of previous works, as well as the primary theory adopted in this study. Chapter 3 discusses the spatial meanings of the deictic motion verbs. Chapter 4 illustrates and discusses the Taiwanese deictic motion verbs lai5 ‘to come’ and khi3 ‘to go’ when they occur in the directional construction. In this chapter, we also compare their different uses between Taiwan Southern Min and Mandarin Chinese. Chapter 5 is the discussion of the non-spatial meanings of the deictic motion verbs in Taiwan Southern Min. Finally, Chapter 6 concludes this study and summarizes major findings.