A Study On The Conversion Of Designation To Assertion Of NOUNs In SHIJI

Designation and assertion is a pair of semantic interpretation function that exists in all languages. And their mutual conversion is also a common phenomenon in human languages. In morphological languages, the conversion of assertion to designation, in general, there will be a mark. But when a conversion of designation to assertion occurs, people often simply use a noun as a verb, and rarely use any marks. In ancient Chinese language, the conversion of designation to assertion is harder to notice, because it not only includes the situation that using a noun as a verb, it includes other situations according to the syntactic positions that NOUNs situate.This paper has SHIJI as the basic research corpus, did research on the interpretation function of all syntactic positions, investigated the NOUNs in predicate of declarative sentences and determinative sentences, adverbial modifier and complement, and then analysed their semantic characters and the extent of the conversion. On the basis of exhaustive survey and objective analyze, the author depicted NOUNs in those four syntactic positions, and try to contribute to the conversion theory of designation to assertion.Based on former research, this paper talked about some theories of designation and assertion, and the conversion from designation to assertion. Then we did research on problems like which syntactic position’s interpretation function is assertion, what semantic characters are common of the NOUNs which situate in these syntactic positions and so on. Then we investigated all the NOUNs in the four syntactic positions:predicate of declarative sentences and determinative sentences, adverbial modifier and complement. As to the NOUNs in predicate, we analysed the common semantic characters they have. As to the NOUNs in adverbial modifier and complement, we analysed what they assert and the relationship between them, to make sure the extent of the conversion. Finally, after comparing the NOUNs in adverbial modifier and complement, we come to a conclusion that the extent of the conversion of NOUNs in adverbial modifier position is higher than complement position.Based on the characters of Ancient Chinese Language and former research, this paper did a comprehensive research of the conversion from designation to assertion, and established a semantic system that is parallel with syntactic positions whose interpretation function is assertion.