The Study On The Semantic Structure Of Compound Words In Contemporary Chinese

The aim of this dissertation is to study the semantic structure of compound words, by focusing on disyllabic compound words in Contemporary Chinese. The study is mainly conducted from two levels of relations, one between morpheme meaning and morpheme meaning, the other between morpheme meaning and word meaning. A semantic interpretation on the grammatical structure of compound words is also assumed.The theoretical orientation underlying this study is the theory of semantic componential analysis, the theory of endocentric construction and the theory of autonomy iconicity motivation, etc.The dissertation is organized into six chapters.Chapter One, Introduction, briefly introduces the current researches on compound words structure and demonstrates the objectives, significance, approaches and perspectives of this dissertation.Chapter Two, Theoretical Preliminaries, as the theoretical basis of the dissertation, proposes a definite boundary to word meaning, based on the definition, structure and cognitive interpretation of word meaning. It also explores the basic views and theories on cognitive linguistics concerning the present study.Chapter Three, Basic Framework for the Semantic Structure of Compound Words, employs the two theories of semantic componential analysis and endocentric construction to analyze the semantic structure of compound words. The conclusion is that the morpheme meaning of compound words is the semantic component symbolized through extraction, which follows the endocentric principles, and a basic framework for the semantic structure of compound words is provided: one morpheme meaning of feature + one morpheme meaning of sense category → one word meaning.Chapter Four, Semantic Structural Analysis of Compound Words, analyzes the semantic structure of compound words, with the grammatical structure of compound words into consideration.Chapter Five, Principles for Autonomy Iconicity of the Semantic Structure of Compound Words and Semantic Conditions for the Formation of Compound Words, probes into the cognitive motivation for the endocentric property of the semantic structure of compound words,from the perspective of autonomy iconicity and the assumption is that the semantic structure of compound words is endocentric. Relying on this, the chapter makes a further exploration of the constraints on the lexicalization of compound structure within the autonomy iconicity motivation.Chapter Six, Remaining Discussion, concludes the primary views of this dissertation and puts forward the issues for further study in future.On the basis of the comprehensive exploration on the semantic structure of compound words in Contemporary Chinese, this dissertation forms and emphasizes two primary views:1. The basic framework for the semantic structure of compound words is: one morpheme meaning of feature + one morpheme meaning of sense category → one word meaning. The function of morpheme meaning in compound words is to express word meaning. The basic framework for the semantic structure of compound words can reflect the relationship between morpheme meaning and word meaning, and how word meaning is expressed through morpheme meaning. According to the theory of semantic componential analysis, word meaning is constructed with semantic components and expressed by morpheme meaning of compound words, through displaying the semantic components of word meaning. The morpheme meaning of compound words is the semantic component symbolized through extraction, which follows the endocentric principles, namely extracting one or zero, rather than two, morpheme meaning of sense category. Besides, the semantic structure of compound words possesses the property of being endocentric. The morpheme meaning of sense category, which is consistent with word meaning, is the head semantic component and its corresponding morpheme is the head morpheme, while the morpheme meaning of feature that expresses the property of category is supplementary semantic component and its corresponding morpheme is bound morpheme.2. The endocentric principle for the extraction of the morpheme meaning of compound words embodies the autonomy principle for word formation. The autonomy iconicity of word formation is the motivation for the correspondence between the semantic structure of compound words and the endocentric property of their grammatical structure. That compound words have the property of the autonomy iconicity of word formation provides us an appropriate perspective to make a cognitive explanation on the structural forms of compound words, and the explanation on compound structure and the differences in the semantics and grammar of compound words. From the perspective of semantic structure, the lexicalization of compound words can be demonstrated as the formation of compound words with 'semantic feature + sense category', which is realized through the compound phrase with 'sense category + sense category', while from the cognitive perspective, it can be demonstrated as the realization of the autonomy of word formation, from the combination 'entity + entity' to that 'the feature of entity + entity'.The previous researches on the semantic structure of compound words mainly dealt with the relationship between morpheme and morpheme, but the relationship between morphemes and words remains an underdeveloped field of research. Also, the research on word meaning concentrated on the analysis and description of word meaning, not on how to express it through morphemes. The semantic framework for compound words set up in this dissertation and designed to connect the relationship between morpheme meaning and word meaning, is assumed to be powerful for analyzing the relationship between the part and the whole of compound words, and as a result, the generative mechanisms for compound words can get a thorough semantic interpretation. This framework is also further assumed to be helpful for providing explanation to the semantic motivation for the structural forms of compound words.