chapter 1  introductionchapter 2  past treatments of serial verb constructions  2.1 past approaches to svcs    2.1.1 christaller （1875）    2.1.2 westermann （1930）    2.1.3 stewart （ 1963 ）    2.1.4 bamgbose （1974）    2.1.5 baker （1989）    2.1.6 agbedor （1994）    2.1.7 aikhenvald （ 2006 ）  2.2 past approaches to chinese svcs    2.2.1 chao （1968）    2.2.2 li and thompson （ 1981 ）    2.2.3 dai （1990）    2.2.4 paul （2004）  2.3 discussionchapter 3  basic tenets of cognitive grammar  3.1 assumptions of cognitive grammar  3.2 symbolization  3.3 construction and composition  3.4 base vs.profile  3.5 construal  3.6 perspective  3.7 action chain  3.8 lexicon and syntax  3.9 schematic representation of a transitive eventchapter 4  the present analysis  4.1 three iconically based semantic principles    4.1.1 principle of temporal sequence and scope    4.1.2 principle of shared participants    4.1.3 principle of situational dependence  4.2 conceptual event  4.3 laying out the event conflation continuum  4.4 event structure of coordination, subordination, and svcs  4.5 morphosyntactic and prosodic tests of event conflation  chapter 5  the five constructions and the seven tests  5.1 coordinate constructions    5.1.1 schematic representation    5.1.2 application of tests    5.1.3 discussion  5.2 complement constructions    5.2.1 schematic representation    5.2.2 application of tests    5.2.3 discussion  5.3 purposive constructions    5.3.1 purposive complements or separate clauses    5.3.2 the three principles reflected in purposive svcs    5.3.3 schematic representation    5.3.4 application of the tests    5.3.5 discussion  5.4 double-headed or shared object constructions    5.4.1 the three principles reflected in double-headedconstructions    5.4.2 schematic representation    5.4.3 application of tests    5.4.4 discussion  5.5 the so-called vv compounds--a continuum between lexicon andsyntax    5.5.1 parallel vv compounds    5.5.2 phase vv compounds    5.5.3 resultative vv compounds    5.5.4 directional vv compounds  5.6 vv compounds as svcs    5.6.1 svcs with complements of result    5.6.2 svcs with complements of direction    5.6.3 schematic representation    5.6.4 application of tests  5.7 discussionchapter 6  coverb constructions  6.1 traditional criteria  6.2 problematic criteria  6.3 verbhood tests  6.4 present analysis    6.4.1 coverbs--a continuum    6.4.2 entities undergoing process  6.5 metaphorical and functional extensions    6.5.1 na 'take' ——instrumental and topic marker    6.5.2 ba——object marker    6.5.3 gel （give） ——recipient marker and benefactive use  6.6 differences between svcs and covcschapter 7  psycholinguistic experiments  7.1 experiment one  7.2 experiment twochapter 8  the association of multi-verb constructions with verbs  8.1 coordinate construction   8.2 complement construction  8.3 purposive construction    8.4 shared object construction  8.5 compound construction     8.5.1 contiguous compounds containing lai ' come' and qu ' go'    8.5.2 contiguous compounds containing motion verbs other thanlai and quchapter 9  conclusionsbibliography