Abstract: Is Chinese a satellite-framed, verb-framed or equipolently-framed language? This paper observes the question from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, drawing evidence from the syntactic, phonological status of the Chinese PATH element known as directional verb complements ( DVC) and their historical grammaticalization process1 Although sharing the same forms, the PATH element incorporated verbs and the DVCs enjoy different grammatical status1 The DVCs are no longer verb roots but rather de-categorized satellite elements1 And Chinese is largely more compatible to be considered as a satellite framed language with the PATH element lexicalized in satellites1