Abstract:
By analyzing the distribution of meaning items the Mandarin verb “填” (to fill), based on 10,000 words of balanced corpus, it was found that there are four main senses of the verb: ① to fill in a depression or low-lying place with soil or garbage to make it flat; ② to fill with something, such as a) filling a space with something, b) filling a space with an emotion or odor; ③ to write or draw in a blank space according to requirements, such as a) writing text in a blank space according to requirements, b) drawing colors or patterns in a blank space according to requirements, c) writing poetry/song lyrics in a blank space according to meter/melody; and ④ to add something to a gap to make it complete, such as a) adding personnel to meet job requirements, b) compensating for a problem through certain actions, c) utilizing spare time through certain actions. In order to better explain the meaning items of the verb “填”, argument structure and qualia structure theories were employed to construct image schemas of each meaning item. These image schemas can provide references for Chinese language learners to better understand the various meanings of the vocabulary and also facilitate the compilation of a Chinese learner's dictionary.
