The preservation of path verb meanings in prepositional extensions in Vietnamese

Abstract

Prepositions are lsmall wordsr used to describe the relationship between other entities indicated by other words in a sentence. Well-known by their linking functions, prepositions are regarded as rather meaningless unless in context. Generally, prepositions often denote spatial or temporal relations between their complement and the element they modify, although they can also denote relations regarding means, manner, instrument, cause, purpose, and so on. In theory of semantic change, prepositions are often considered as the results of the grammaticalisation from nouns or verbs. After grammaticalisation, prepositions are often considered as having grammatical meanings rather than the lexical meanings of their nominal or verbal origins.nIt is argued in this study that the semantic function of grammatical prepositions in Vietnamese is not merely grammatical. By analysing the semantic extension from path verbs, verbs denoting the direction of motion, to prepositions in Vietnamese, the study aims to answer two questions: (i) To what extent is the semantic network of path verbs similar to that of their derived prepositions? and (ii) What does this tell us about the semantic network after grammaticalisation?nAs a case study,rais the path verb and the corresponding preposition employed. It was selected based on its complexity and diversified representation and for its status as a typical example of the semantic extension of prepositions that come from path verbs.nSince there has been a long-lasting debate on the status of Vietnamese prepositions, the first mission of the study is to demonstrate that prepositions derived from path verbs can be differentiated from other grammatical categories such as verbs and adverbs. By applying grammatical tests (deletion, topicalisation, and coordination) and a phonetic test (duration), the study claims that itisnpossible to distinguishnprepositions from verbs and adverbs. In particular, the phonetic test reveals the remarkable difference between the duration of verbs and prepositions that allows us to differentiate prepositions from second verbs in a serial verb construction.nWhile this study supposes that prepositions in Vietnamese are the results of a grammaticalisation from path verbs, its research into grammaticalisation is based on a detailed semantic analysis of synchronic data due to the absence of historical evidence. To the extent that it is possible to use the synchronic approach, the study addresses the question of how Vietnamese prepositions are generated from path verbs by investigating the polysemy networks of verbs with those of prepositions. Metaphor and metonymic inference are the tools used to describe the semantic networks of verbalnraand prepositionalnra.By identifying ambiguous contexts that invite inferences, an attempt is made to trace the semantic extension from the central sense of the verbalnra,nto the several extensions that formed via metonymic inference. Meanwhile, the semantic extensions from the concrete to the metaphorical senses of verbalnraare explained by conceptual metaphors. The semantics of verbalnrais then compared with that of the preposition. The results of the study demonstrate that prepositionalnranot only preserves all the senses of verb, but it also adds a subsequent meaning to the semantic network ofnra.The results of the study allow for the formulationin regard to the preservation of meaning, and the semantic extensions of polysemous items in the process of grammaticalisation from verbs to prepositions.nThere are two main contributions that the dissertation aims to offer Vietnamese linguistics. First, it contributes to the theoretical understanding about prepositions by confirming that prepositions derived from path verbs are a distinct grammatical category, which has long been debated. Based on the tools of cognitive semantics, the dissertation is the first study that reconstructs the semantic extensions from path verbs to prepositions through an in-depth examination, answering the question in which way the multi-related senses of a lexical item such asnraare associated. It is hoped that the results of the studycould be used as a model to investigate another preposition derived from path verbs (or locative nouns) in Vietnamese. For the study of language in general, especially concerning the diversity of motion events, grammaticalisation and semantic extensions in languages, thedissertationnoffers a previously unstudied contribution.nnn