Beyond Typology: How Event Integration Works in Motion Events - A Case Study of “V + Dào” Construction in Mandarin

This study investigates the mechanisms of event integration in Mandarin motion events, with a specific focus on the widely used “V + Dào” construction, a representative verb complex in the language. Event integration, defined as the reconceptualization of events through conceptual conflation or integration, has traditionally been examined within the scope of either the main verb or the satellite. This research broadens the theoretical scope by introducing two complementary dimensions of event integration: internal event integration, where individual lexical items conflate multiple subevents, and external event integration, where subevents are integrated between the main verb and the satellite. Using a dataset of 611 “V + Dào” sentences extracted from a spoken Chinese corpus, the study identifies 12 distinct patterns of event integration. These patterns include combinations such as “(motion + manner) + (motion + path)” and “(motion + cause) + (motion + path),” illustrating the intricate interplay between semantic components. The analysis reveals that internal integration operates through the conflation of conceptual elements within “V” or “Dào,” while external integration is achieved through conceptual mapping and the semantic overlap between these components. The findings of this study advance our understanding of Mandarin’s typological flexibility and enrich existing theories on motion event encoding. By proposing a refined framework for analyzing event integration, this work offers new insights into cross-linguistic variation and highlights the significance of Mandarin as a language that challenges traditional dichotomies in motion event typology. These contributions underscore the importance of reconsidering established linguistic models to account for the complexity of event integration mechanisms in diverse languages.