An examination of the syntactic and semantic characteristics of Shang and Xia in Mandarin

Abstract

This thesis examines some of the major aspects of the semantic and syntactic characteristics of 'shang' and 'xia' in Mandarin Chinese. One of their basic meanings relates to the vertical dimension, both 'shang' and 'xia, being involved in the indication of vertical direction and position. It is seen that this vertical dimension can extend into the realms of quantity, status, sequencing and time. The use of vertical terms in these extended areas is found in other languages, such as English, suggesting that there may some perceptual, cognitive and/or experiential bases for such extensions. The very productive use of 'shai1g' and 'xia' in sequencing and time in Mandarin is noted and it is suggested that this may be related to the importance of hierarchical relations Chinese culture. The grammatical functions of 'shang' and 'xia' are also examined. As verb complements the two morphemes are involved in marking perfectivity. This seems to be due as much to the fact that they are directionals, thus involving concepts such as goal and source, as to their specific vertical meanings. Comparisons are made with the use of spatial terms as aspectual markers in other languages. The role of 'shang' and 'xia' as place word markers is also considered. TI1e thesis looks at the grammatical status of 'shang' and 'xia', and notes the relationship between this and their inherent semantic meanings. 'Shang' is identified as the unmarked member of the pair and is also the morpheme which, when acting as a localiser, appears to have gone further along the path from lexical to grammatical material since in some cases it see·ms to have little semantic content and just serves a grammatical function.