The Semantic Features of Noun-verb Metaphorical Compound verbs in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

As a closed category, noun-verb metaphorical compound verbs are not productive but still frequently used in Mandarin Chinese. The internal relationship between the morphemes is subordinate, often with the noun morphemes suggesting the vehicles of metaphor processes and the verb morphemes indicating the tenors. Even though these compounds are already formed through metaphor, their meanings can further develop through metaphor and thereby gain new metaphorical meanings. In addition, we examine the usages and semantic features of two metaphorical compound verbs can-shi and jing-tun through a corpus-based collocation study to tease out people’s internal understanding of their meanings.