Quantitative comparative study on the verb-direction constructions “V+ Xia (下)”, “V+ Xialai (下来)” and “V+ Xiaqu (下去)” in mandarin Chinese

“V+ Xia (下)”, “V+ Xialai (下来)” and “V+ Xiaqu (下去)” are common verb-direction constructions in Mandarin Chinese, exhibiting certain similarities in syntactic distribution and semantic content. Employing collostructional analysis, this study quantitatively and visually calculates the collocational strength and attraction between different types of verbs and these verb-direction constructions. It analyzes the polysemy of the three constructions, summarizes the differences in their prototype meaning, and examines the distribution of collocational strength and relative semantic distance between prototypical and non-prototype meanings. Furthermore, it explores the characteristics of the semantic network structures presented by the three constructions. The findings indicate that “V+ Xialai” possesses the largest number of attracted verbs, the broadest verb selection range, and the highest productivity among the three constructions. “V+ Xia”, constrained by prosody, exhibits the lowest productivity but the highest average collocational strength. “V+ Xia” has the highest number of semantic types with a relatively uniform distribution of collocational strength, whereas the distributions for “V+ Xialai” and “V+ Xiaqu” are more concentrated around their prototype meanings. The semantic networks of “V+ Xia” and “V+ Xiaqu” overall display a gradient continuum, while that of “V+ Xialai” is relatively discrete, with certain semantic types showing a tendency to form independent clusters. The prototype meanings of all three constructions demonstrate strong semantic coherence. Non-prototype meanings with high collocational strength also exhibit relatively strong internal coherence, while those with low collocational strength are more discrete, displaying characteristics of diversity.