本文討論上古漢語的「作格動詞」。在［受事主語+V （作格動詞）］的結構中，作格動詞包含使動詞和部分及物行為動詞，這兩類動詞如何劃分且為何能夠進入相同句式，為歷來古漢語研究者所關注。本文援用認知語義學的概念化 (conceptualization) 理論，分析有爭議作格動詞的古文字結構。由於漢字抽象化意符近似於人類認知中的意象圖式（image schemas ），其表意記錄有助於辨認詞彙的原始意義。早在概念形成之初，作格動詞就含攝著動作與結果狀態雙重內涵，隨語言使用者側重不同而使突顯的焦點有所差異，動作語義者進入施事句，結果狀態語義者進入受事主語句；反之，中性動詞只將行為概念化，因此無法兩用。作格動詞性質如此，過去有關動詞分類、被動句或表態句、動補結構等等語法爭議也可從行為、結果狀態雙重面向一併獲得解釋。傳統小學研究向來主張形音義不可偏廢，本文將字形引入語言學範疇進行考察，也是一種新的嘗試。

The ‘ergative verb’ in Pre-Qin Chinese consists of two types of verbs used in so-called ‘patient-as-subject’ sentences: one is generally classified as causative verbs, and the other includes part of the verbs which is generally classified as active transitive verbs. The reason why these two different types of verbs could be used in the same sentence pattern and what differs them from the ‘neutral verbs’ are two major problems this paper tries to answer. The graphic formation of the archaic Chinese characters is generally believed by the traditional Chinese philologists to signify the original meaning of the word, and its conceptualization approximately conforms with the image schemas developed in cognitive semantics. Therefore, it is appropriate to elucidate the meaning of the verbs by analyzing the formation of the characters from the viewpoint of cognitive semantics. The conclusion is that the two types of ergative verbs equally lay emphasis on both the patient and agent, and consequently on both the action and its result; but the neutral verbs lay emphasis only on the agent, and consequently only on the action. According to their different emphases, the ergative verbs could be used like the active transitive verbs in the ‘agent-as-subject’ sentences and intransitive verbs in the ‘patient-as-subject’ sentences, but the neutral verbs could be only used as active transitive verbs in the ‘agent-as-subject’ sentences. The complicate conceptualization of the ergative verbs results in their complicate function and thus makes them difficult to be clearly classified according to the normal rules.