Characteristic of Chinese Serial Verb Construction and Its Thai Equivalent

Abstract

This article aims to present the characteristics of serial verb construction in Chinese, and to compare its equivalent in Thai, including the number of serial verbs within a sentence, the relationship of serial verbs and auxiliary word “zhe”（着）, and use of directional serial verbs, those can be concluded as 1) there are 2-5 verbs can be linked in one sentence. 2) the auxiliary word “zhe”（着）must be placed between the 1st and the 2nd verbs in case the serial verbs are intransitive verbs, vice versa for transitive serial verbs, there are both the case of “zhe”（着）is needed and unneeded. 3) the directional serial verbs that come together with a noun (location), the 2^nd directional verb can be placed in 2 positions: after the noun (location) or at the end of the sentence. When all the cases above are brought to compare with the equivalents in Thai, the results are: 1) there are 2-5 verbs that can be linked in one sentence in Thai as well. 2) there is no auxiliary word in Thai is needed to be added between serial verbs as “zhe” does in Chinese. 3) the directional serial verbs that come together with a noun (location) in Thai, the 2^nd directional verb can be only placed after the noun (location) while there 2 positions are possible in Chinese.