Research Related To The Order Of Asymmetric Phenomenon

This paper studies multi-dimensional asymmetry of Chinese Syntax, includingword order asymmetry and the affirmative and negative asymmetry, mainly studyingthe performance, function and regulation of Chinese syntax asymmetry. The contentsdiscussed are mainly comparative sentences(CS) asymmetric series and the numericcomponents preposition(NCP) asymmetric series, including:1)the word orderasymmetry of CS.2)the affirmative and negative asymmetry of CS.3)Theattribute-head phrase asymmetry of CS.4)the motivation of asymmetry in CS.5)theword order asymmetry of“Yi(一)+quantifier noun”in negative form.6) Timeingredient asymmetry in NCP negative forms.7) Function word asymmetry in NCP.8)The motivation of asymmetry in NCP.Chapter1is an introduction.Chapter2is about markedness theory. Markedness and asymmetry areinseparable. The markedness standards affect the selection and explanation of theasymmetry. It reviews the markedness criteria and points out that “frequency” canbe seen as the core criteria, but its explanatory power should be limited. It analyzesthe different interpretations of the different schools of thoughts on the markednesstheory. Finally, it points out the features of markedness, such as markednesssimilarity, markedness reversals, markedness transfer and markedness assimilation.Chapter3discusses the previous study of asymmetry. Previous studies haveshown that it includes semantic asymmetry, the affirmative and negative formasymmetry and word order asymmetry. On the basis of previous studies, weascertain that the latter two kinds of asymmetry have great study value, and whichalso have close relation with the syntactic transformation.From Chapter4to Chapter11can be divided into two series, including thecomparative sentence (CS) asymmetric series and the numeric componentspreposition (NCP) asymmetric series. Each chapter focuses on a case, which exploresa specific problem on word order asymmetry.Chapter4is the word order asymmetry of CS. The word order of CS did not strictly follow the language universals in typology. The word order of CS (Mandarin&Chinese dialects) almost consists of all possible word order types of CS, except for aspecial case such as Tiantai dialect.These particularities are mainly due to that the adjective must be usedindependently from the predicate in order to express comparison. The internaldevelopment of CS is not balanced, the markedness, difference of frequency, andconstruct complexity distinguish the typical core sentence pattern of CS. Finally, itpoints out that there are asymmetries existing in “meiyou”and “bubi”, positive andnegative adjectives, and analyze the motivation of asymmetry in CS.Chapter5is the affirmative and negative asymmetry of CS. The frequency of useof the affirmative form is higher than the negative one. The frequency of use ofpositive adjectives is higher than the negative one, which are the language universalsin typology. Secondly, negative marker is located in front of comparative marker,rather than the adjective comparison result. This is different from other languages.The unmarked adjective bears comparison function, the marked adjective (such asthe negative form) cant bear the comparison function. So the negative word “no”only negates the comparative marker, it cannot negate the comparison result. Third,asymmetry exists in the affirmative and negative of CS. The affirmative formrepresents a linear increment, and comparison resultant can be extended freely,while the negative form is not a linear increment, so comparison resultant can’textend freely, which are language universals.Chapter6is the attribute-head phrase asymmetry of CS. The semantic of CS,“de”, and the semantic of attribute-head phrase, all contain “whole-part” meaning,which causes asymmetry on syntax transformation and word order transformation.Different languages have different methods of coding “whole-part” meaning, andtypology investigation proved that attribute-head phrase has “whole-part”meaning,which provides some references for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Chapter7is the motivation of asymmetry in CS. The second language learner’sfrequency of use of CS is different from native speakers. The differences show thatthe acquisition difficulties of CS come from the special nature of adjective comparison result, which affects word order, position of negation marker andcomparative marker of CS.Chapter8is the“Yi(一)+quantifier noun”asymmetry in negative forms. It firstpoints out the two word order asymmetry of Yi(一)+quantifier noun”in negativeform, the“Yi”has three meanings: the quantity“one”, the whole“one”andthe any amount of“one”. The quantity“one”is the basic and unmarked form inthese three meanings. Then, it describes the syntactic performance of the twoconstructions from the perspectives of word-class sequence, syntactic structure,argument structure, logic meaning and the logic mechanism. Last, it reveals thesemantic performance of the two word order, distinguishes “individual”quantification from “event” quantification, and virtual quantification from realquantification.Chapter9is the numeric components preposition (NCP) asymmetry. Inaffirmative form, the time quantity ingredient is located on the right side of the verb.In the negative form, time quantity ingredient is located in the left side of the verb.The changes of NCP syntactic position relate to the verb boundedness feature.Chapter10is the function words asymmetry of NCP. In previous studies, thewords "jiu/cai” asymmetry in time quantity ingredient preposition was attributed tosubjectivity, however it points out that the function words “jiu/cai”in affirmativeforms and the function words “dou/ye” in negative forms was distinguished mainlyby the verb boundedness feature.Chapter11discusses the motivation of the time quantity ingredient prepositionasymmetry in the negative forms. Time quantity ingredient left forward was affectedby syntactic factors, historical data support, language economy mechanism and alsothe pragmatic effect.Chapter12is a conclusion.