Study On Chinese Grammaticalization: Theory And Practice

The paper takes the current status of Chinese grammaticalization studies as the object of investigation, using constructional grammar theory, connecting point and surface and relating theory with practice With the combination of meaning and grammatical form as its research approach, this paper summarizes and analyzes the achievements of Chinese grammaticalization studies since 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to summarize current study status, exploring the rules of grammaticalization and discussing the relationship between grammaticalization theory and the evolution of Chinese. It presents problems of Chinese study that grammaticalization have solved, the illogical match between the theory and Chinese language facts as well as the weakness of present studies. It distinguished definitions such as grammatical entrenchment, semantic bleaching and expansion. Under the framework of constructional grammar, this paper carries out the case study of Chinese marker"??"class structure and aspect marker "?", discussing the relationship among grammaticalization, lexicalization and constructions, and whether grammaticalization itself is bleaching or expansion in nature.This paper is theoretical by nature, but it contains more than the summary and classification of current studies. On the basis of the summary, the paper evaluates and pondering on the summary as well as carries out further studies. It summarizes problems that grammaticalization theory solves in Chinese studies, and reflects on the contradictory aspects against Chinese language facts, the weakness in present studies and explores these contradictory points through case studies.We stick to strict operational model and integrate constructional grammar into our studies. From the perspective of form and meaning, we clarified the grammaticalization processes of nouns, pronouns and verbs. Based on overall observation of our data, this paper makes the conclusion that grammaticalization put more emphasis on the emergence and evolution of language form, but due to the characteristics of Chinese, the language put more stress on meaning evolution and its result. Under the framework of constructional grammar, we supplemented grammaticalization theory by using the theory of constructionalization and detailed the concrete process of language units emergence. Furthermore, we put forward new explanations for lexicalization and grammaticalization and also analyze whether grammaticalization itself is bleaching or expansion in nature.The paper also stresses the key syntactic environment of grammaticalization of nouns and verbs, in other words grammaticalization domain, and discovered the basic rules of syntactic movement during the grammaticaliztion processes of these word classes. It also explains questions like the classification of Chinese word class, the origin of grammaticalization and so on. Moreover, besides the summary of current researches, based in the comparison and analysis of various literatures, we summarize the layer distribution and relation arrangement within the grammaticalization mechanism and distinguish grammaticalization from traditional concept such as expansion, bleaching, semantic overlapping, entrenchment, and borrowing.The paper is divided into five chapers, the introductions of each chapters are as the following:Chapter 1 is introduction. It introductions the current domestic study of grammaticalization, including definition, study objects, current status and existing problems. It also highlights the research significance, approaches, theoretical framework and methods.Chapter 2 mainly discussion motivations and mechanism of grammaticalization. It introduces the western grammaticalization theories, cognitive motivations, purpose motivation and metaphor and metonymy. Moreover, the paper summarizes domestic studies on motivations of grammaticalization, such as pragmatic, semantic, syntactic positions, sentence structure meaning, language system and so on. It also elaborates the different results of above grammaticalization motivations. For grammaticalization mechanisms, we mainly introduce "reanalysis"and "analogy", and others such as "inference", "generalization", "harmony" and "absorption of context"and so on. Based on introductions of theories, relevant domestic studies put forward theoretical innovation. Meanwhile, since there exists misuses of grammaticalization concepts domestically, we categorizes grammaticlization mechanisms and distinguishes concepts such as grammaticalization, semantic bleaching and expansion and so forth.Chapter 3 focus on the grammaticalization processes of nouns and aspect pronouns and introduces the present study on grammaticalization of aspect concrete words. In the discussion of grammaticalization processes, we also summarizes the rules of grammaticalization and existing problems, for example:a. from the perspective of form and meaning, we summarizes the features of grammaticalizaion, including the non-continuity of grammatialization process, the middle link entity being the prime syntactic position of noun grammaticalization, ect; b. Inferred form the summarization from previous study, the paper illustrates the cause that prevent grammaticalization of other words from the same semantic categorization; c. Throught the example of "pronoun inserted conjunctions", the paper also presents features of lexicalization. It concludes the entrenchment of lexicalized form requires certain social environment. Furthermore, it also compares grammaticalization processes of Chinese pronoun "?"and English "that", and so on.Chapter 4 studies the grammaticalization process of verbs and introduces the current study status on verb grammaticalizaion and give answers to questions from previous chapters. The summary of this chapter are as the following:a. From the process of a verb grammaticalized to a preposition, it mainly analyzes the semantic conditions of preposition; b. From the observation of a verb grammaticalized to an auxiliary, we put forward questions about the directions of lexicalization; c. From the processes of a verb grammaticalized into a conjunction, we hold the view that conjunctions are word class that are easily susceptible to sentence meaning, and sentence meaning not only increase the sememe of grammaticalization but also set restrictions on original meaning; e. Based on the summarization of noun and verb grammaticalization positions and syntactic move directions, it deals with problems arise from different stages of noun and pronoun generalization processes. The paper further elaborates Chinese word class, discourse markers and the violations of grammaticalizations; f. the paper put forward the argument that "the direct source exerts more a powerful influence on grammaticalization entity than original sources and original uses".Chapter 5 explains relationships among grammaticalization, lexicalization, constructions and entrenchment as well as the relevant domestic studies in this aspect. Under the framework of constructional grammar, the paper carries out the case study on grammaticalization process of "??" class structure, focusing on topics such as "the relationship between lexicalization and grammaticalization", "the unidirectionality of grammaticalization", "the classification of Chinese word class" and "whether grammaticalization itself is bleaching or expansion in nature" and so forth.Chapter 6 summarizes and concludes the paper as well as points out the weaknesses and future study directions.