Abstract
This paper is about the diachronic evolution of the verbs of “dig”. There was “wa(挖)”、“jue(掘)”、“zao(凿)”、“wan(剜)”、“jue(抉)”. “jue(掘)” mainly used among them from ancient times to Ming Dynasty. “Wa(挖)” had turned into the dominant word for the concept of “dig” from Qing Dynasty till modern times. This paper focused on the research for the usage of members in the semantic field from ancient times to Qing Dynasty and analysis of the historical replacement of “jue(掘)” with “wa(挖)” as well as its causes.BR It also described the formation of compound words composed of synonyms, and how monosyllabic verb is developed a compounded words composed of synonyms. In addition, it showed the formation of verbs of “dig” and “chu(出)”、“qu(取)”、“cheng(成)” and the reason why the verbs for the concept of “dig” frequently collocate with it.BR Finally, from the typology of view, it showed the reason why the verbs of “dig” to be an ergative verb. The author studied verbs of “dig” has three semantic features, and found out the reason why the verb of “dig”, which has second semantic feature, can convert to ergative verb.
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