言 語 研 究(Gengo Kenkyu)67(1975)30～57 On Location and Movement in Chinese TENG Shou-hsin Abstract This paper studies the semantic and syntactic properties of a set of prepositional phrases in Mandarin which delineate the location and movement of their associated nouns. Location and movement are defined in terms of three dimensions, viz. agent's, speaker's, and addressee's. How the grammaticality of such sentences is relative to each of these dimensions is demonstrated. These prepositional phrases involve different scopes of modification, i.e. subject-or object-oriented, and the source of different scopes is explained by different underlying configurations. Finally, constraints on the syntactic movements of these phrases are discus- sed and a proposed derivational constraint (Tai 1973) rejected. 1. Introduction. This is a study of the syntactic and semantic properties of a set of prepositional phrases, which includes both locative prepositions (primarily), such as zai ' to be located ', cong from', and dau ' to ' , and non-locative prepositions (secondarily), such as gen from' and gei ' to ' . In previous studies of prepositions in Chinese, these two groups are not related (cf. Chao 1968), By adopting in this paper a set of semantic notions, viz., Base, Source, and Goal, it becomes possible to characterise their common properties in a systematic way. More specifically, cong and gen specify Source, while ddu and gei specify Goal. That Base (i. e. zai) lacks its nonlocative counterpart is here explained by the fact that the subject-oriented Base is a higher predicate, thus not in opposition to Source and Goal in a simplex sentence. 30 On Location and Movement in Chinese 31 2. Directionality of verb. The occurrence of the various types of locative phrases is by and large determined by the directionality of verbs, in particular action verbs.1) In this section, this directionality will be defined and illustrated in environments where locative phrases are absent. Verbs are characterisable as either directional or non-direction- al, depending on the movement or non-movement orientation of verb properties concerned. In the case of directional verbs, an NP which is associated with the verb in the capacity of an agent or a patient undergoes a locational displacement, from P(osition)2 at T(ime)1 to P2 at T2. Locational references may or may not be explicitly stated in the sentence in terms of, generally, prepositional phrases. Syntactically, directional verbs are those which occur freely with movement-verbs such as jin enter ' , chu ' out', shang` up ', and xia down', and/or directional-verbs, viz., lai come' and on go' in their literal sense, as illustrated below.2) ( 1 ) a. Bie ! don't walk-enter-go (Don't go in !) b. BA yizi na-chu-lai ! Disp-V chair take-out-come (Bring the chair out !) c. *Bie chang chu qu ! don't sing-out-go (Don't sing out !) More examples of verbs in each category are listed below. ( 2 ) a. Directional : pao run', tiao jump' , fang put', 1) For the definition and properties of action, process, and state verbs, refer to Chafe (1970), Teng (1972), and Lakoff (1966). 2) When directional endings occur with non-directional verbs, they are interpreted idiomatically, usually in the aspectual sense, e. g. (i ) Chang-xia-qu! sing-down-go (Keep on singing!) (ii) Chang-qi ge lai-le. sing-up song come-Perf (Started singing.) 32 TENG Shou-hsin gua hang,' ban move,' na take/bring,' diu throw,' jian pick up,' song deliver ' , yun transport.' b. Non-directional : ji ' remember,' xiang think,' wen smell,' xiuxi ' rest,' mo ` touch,' xiu repair,' xi ' wash ,' zhu cook; ca ' erase,' kilo test.' 2.1. ' Inward' and Outward.' Directional verbs are further classifiable into, or modifiable by, ` inward ' and outward,' the former feature indicated by the directional-verb 'come' and the latter by go.' In other words, some verbs are inherently ' inward' or ' outward,' as illustrated in (3), and some are neutral as to these properties, as shown an (4). (3) a. Wo Ed ni tui xia qu, hao bu hao ? (Outward) I Disp-V you push-down-go, good Neg good (Shall I push you down ?) b. *Wo ba ni tu-xia lai, hao bu hao ? push-down-come (Shall I push you over here ?) c. WO ba ni la-xia-lai, hao bu hao ? (Inward) pull-down-come (Shall I pull you down ?) d. *Wo ba ni la-xia-qu, hao bu hao ? pull-down-go (Shall I pull you over there ? (4) a. Wo ba ni fang-xia-qu, hao bu hao ? (Neutral) put-down-go (Shall I put you down ?) b. Wo ba ni fang-xia-lai, hao bu hao ? put-down-come (Shall I put you down ?) More examples are given below. (5) a. Inward: mai buy,' xue ' learn,'qu fetch,' wen ask, yao want,' tao ask for,' ling collect,'qu marry (as of a man),' tau steal,' b. Outward: mai sell,' :jiao teach,' gei give,' gaos ' tell ,' fa give out,' shang award,' jia marry (a of a woman),' gan ' drive off,' diu ` throw,' ren, ' throw .' On Location and Movement in Chinese 33 Most of the inward verbs given above can be associated with the preposition en from,' and most of the outward verbs with the preposition gel ' to ' (see 10 and 11 below). The features inward ' and outward ' are not here proposed as semantic primitives, but are mere informal labels, since they can be further analysed into the various configurations involving Source and Goal (see Section 3). 2.2. Three dimensions of directionality. The movement inward ' and outward ' must be understood in three dimensions- those of the agent, the speaker, and the addressee, and the gram- maticality in the selection of 'come' and 'go' is to be defined in each dimension. 2.2.1. Dimension of the agent. This dimension defines the intrinsic directionality of verbs. With the position of the agent as the norm, locational displacement away from the agent is ' outward' and that towards , i. e. terminating at, the agent is inward.' Thus, the characterisation given in (5) is made solely' within this dimension, and the incompatibility between ` push ' and ` come ' as well as between ' pull ' and ' go,' as intended in (3), is defined in this dimension. Note that the speaker in (3) is intentionally made identical to the agent, so that the sentences can only be interpreted uni-dimensionally, that is, the dimension of the agent coincides with that of the speaker. 2.2.2. Dimension of the speaker. In this dimension, locational displacement is defined with the position of the speaker as the norm, rather than that of the agent. It is not difficult to conceive the fact that a speech act is speaker-oriented, and consequently, we observe that the dimension of the speaker over-rides that of the agent. Compare the ungrammatical sentences in (3) with the following, ( 6 ) a. Ni ba dongxi tui-xia-lai, hao bu hao ? you Disp-V thing push-down-come, good Neg good 34 TENG Shou-hsiu (Could you push the thing down ?) b. Ni ba dongxi hao bu hao ? pull-down-go (Could you pull the thing down ?) Here the incompatibility between ' push' and ' come' and between ' pull ' and ' go ,' as observed in (3), is invalidated, and the selec- tion of ' come' and ' go' is determined within the dimension of the speaker. 2. 2.3. Dimension of the addressee. The role of the addressee in a speech act is not as prominent as that of the speaker, but in some instances locational displacement is defined from the point of view of the addressee. A commonplace case is observed in a telephone exchange such as the following, ( 7 ) a. Ni mashang guo-/lai, hao bu hao ? (speaker's dimension) you immediately over-come, good Neg good (Could you come over right away ?) b. HAO, wo mäshang guo-Lai. (addressee's dimension) good, I immediately over-come (All right, I'll come over right now.) Here, ' come' is selected in each case from different dimensions, as indicated. In some instances, the selection of ' come ' or 'go' can be made freely within the dimension of the speaker or within that of the addressee, in referring to one and the same event, e. g. ( 8 ) Wo VA qiu ti-guo-qu/lai gei ni, hao bu hao ? I Disp-V ball kick-over-go/come to you, good Neg good (Shall I kick the ball over to you ?) Directional expressions in Chinese involve three references, viz., activity (i. e. directional verbs), movement (e. g. enter, up, and down), and direction (i. e. come and go). While the specifi- cation of the direction-verb is subject to the three dimensions discussed above, the movement-verb is always characterised in the agent's dimension. For instance, suppose the agent and the On Location and Movement in Chinese 35 speaker are in two separate but adjoining rooms ; when the agent comes out of his room into the speaker's room, the speaker can only report zou-chu-lai ' walk-out-come ' (coming out) and not u-jin-lai ' walk-enter-come' (entering). The specification zoof cha rather than jin here is determined by the agent's dimension. 3. Source, Goal, and Base. It will be defined in this paper that an NP which undergoes a locational displacement is termed a ' theme ' (Gruber 1967), its originating position in a movement Source, its terminating point in a movement Goal, and the position of an NP in a non-movement Base. These notions arei ndicated in the examples below. ( 9 ) a. Shu zai dishang. book (theme) loc-V floor (Base) (The book is on the floor.) b.