粵語中的趨向動詞：類型學及歷史研究

Directional Verbs in Cantonese: A Typological and Historical Study

Talmy (1985, 2000b) 按照在位移事件中，路徑由動詞還是衛星來表達，把語言分成動詞框架和衛星框架語言。本文說明粵語利用趨向動詞和趨向補語來表達路徑，展示了兩類語言的特點。有學者認為漢語從古到今經歷了由動詞框架到衛星框架語言的類型轉變。從粵語和現代漢語的兩點差異，包括粵語可以用趨向動詞表達致移事件，而現代漢語卻不可以；動詞和趨向補語在粵語中的融合程度沒有現代漢語來得高；本文認為這些不同反映了兩個方言在類型轉變和語法化進程中處於不同階段。

Talmy (1985, 2000b) classifies languages into verb-framed and satellite-framed languages based on whether path is expressed in the main verb or in the satellite. This study shows that Cantonese makes use of both directional verbs and directional complements to express path, exhibiting characteristics of both types of languages. Scholars suggest that Classical Chinese has undergone a typological shift from a verb-framed language to a satellite-framed language. It is observed that Cantonese differs from Mandarin in two aspects. First, the use of a directional verb to encode agentive motion events is found in Cantonese but not in Mandarin. Second, the degree of fusion between the verb and the directional complement in Cantonese is not as high as Mandarin. This study suggests that the differences can be best construed as various stages of typological transformation and grammaticalization the two dialects have undergone.