A study of Giving-type Ditransitive Constructions in the Chinese and Thai Languages based on the Linguistics Universals

Abstract

Chinese and Thai languages share ditransitive constructions such as Prepositional Dative and Double-object structures. However, the placements of the direct and indirect objects differ in the two languages' double-object constructions. The Chinese double object construction is "verb + indirect object + direct object"; the Thai double object construction is "verb + direct object + indirect object." This study's primary objective is to begin with linguistic typology. The researcher employs "the Principle of Economy" and "the Principle of Iconicity" to investigate the ditranstitive construction of Chinese and Thai in order to disclose the relationships between linguistic universals and the ditranstitive construction of Chinese and Thai. According to the study's findings, the Prepositional Dative construction in Chinese and Thai is tied to Semantic Distance Iconicity Principle. The formation of the Chinese double-object construction is related to Identifiability Precedence Iconicity Principle. In contrast, the formation of the Thai double-object construction is related to Semantic Distance Iconicity Principle. These findings can not only help us comprehend the construction of ditransitive structures in Chinese and Thai, but they can also assist Thai Chinese learners or Chinese Thai learners in analyzing problems from new perspectives.