本文主要從語音屬性與句式特色的角度，探討趨向補語「起」「起來」在代漢語中的用法，並將論述時間面擴及現代漢語普通話、方言，以窺得整個演變軌跡。
由低處移向高處(趨向意義)、聚攏、穩存、凸起(結果意義)、「+始動、+動態持續」(狀態意義)是「起」與「起來」的主要語意特徵。「來」除了表示向著說話者位移的趨向意義，另有連接前後分句以及結句作用。「起」可以是「+始動、-動態持續」，強調起始動作義。「起」的語意可擴展至「上」「出」的範疇，閩南方言中「起」具有普通話中，「起」與「上」兩種功能可作為印證。表示狀態意義的「起」「起來」進一步虛化，由動相進入動貌階段，相當「了1」。
單音節動詞與「起」「起來」搭配是主流，動詞類型集中於動作動詞與言說動詞。當賓話由多個子句組合而成，可以成為一個獨立的言談內容，不適合在句末出現「來」，採用「V起O」形式，顯現「來」與「起」之間不能相隔太遠的特性。形容詞一般出現在「起來」形式中，但是現代方言打破此種規律，有「形+起」的用法。音節形成對於漢語句式產生相當程度的影響，「V起」「V起O」「V起O來」出現頻率高，反映漢語詞彙單位雙音節形式特色。「VO起來」的「O」如果由單音節詞充當，「VO」產生詞化現象，可當作雙音節動詞。「單V起來」中，「起來」已經融合成一個雙音節詞」是「一二」節奏形式，為動趨式帶來新的風貌。觀察分布情形，明清時期，「起來」更為活躍，已有超越「起」的趨勢。

The purpose of this paper is to probe the deictic complements qi起and qilai起來in Early Mandarin by examining their semantic properties and functions. In order to reach a better understanding of the development of their usages, I extend the scope of my discussion to include Modern Chinese and dialects.
The main semantic properties of qi起and qilai起來are as follows. The first is a deictic meaning of moving to height from the lower. The second is a resultant meaning of gathering together, hiding or protruding. The third is a state meaning, “+start to move, +sustain to move”. The deictic meaning of lai來is moving toward the speaker. In this sense, lai來also fulfills a function of connecting two phrases and ending a sentence. The semantic property of qi起is “+start to move, +sustain to move”, emphasizing the stage of initial movement. The claim that qi起has an extended semantic meaning of shang上and chu出is supported by the fact that qi起in Southern Min dialect is functionally equivalent to either qi起or shang上in Mandarin. This indicates that the state meanings of qi起and qilai起來have undergone grammaticalization from phase complements to aspect markers like le了1.
The pattern of monosyllabic verbs combined with qi起or qilai起來is a main usage and the verb or speech verbs. When the object is a series of clauses, forming an independent discourse unit, i.e., “verb+qi起+object” instead of “verb+qi起+object+lai來”, is used, showing the characteristic convention that lai來and qi起can not be separate far apart. As a rule, adjective generally appear in the qilai起來form. But this rule has been broken in modern dialects, as shown in the presence of the usage of “adjective+qi起”. Syllabicity has certain effects on the sentence structure of Chinese. The high frequency of the patterns of “verb+qi起”, “verb+qi起+object+lai來” reflects the disyllabicity characteristic of Chinese. A monosyllabic object in the “verb+object+qi起+ lai來” pattern may be analyzed as forming a compound with the verb. Also, if following a monoyllabic verb, qilai起來became a disyllabic word. In sum, according to the observation of this study, the distribution of qi起and qilai起來in the period of Ming and Qing dynasties reveals that the latter had gained the upper hand over the former.