The Derivation And Development Of Chinese Polysyllabic Words In Ancient Ones

In this issue,based on a comprehensive and detailed description of the disyllablization status from ancient to middle Chinese vocabulary,we try to explore the regular pattern and reason of disyllablization as well as the affection that disyllablization brought to Chinese pronunciation,vocabulary and grammar system.The significance of this research includes the following two aspects:1.To summarize the regular pattern how polysyllabic words evolve from ancient to middle Chinese vocabulary,deepen the study of the history of the evolution of Chinese vocabulary.2.To explain the reason and mechanism why polysyllabic words evolve from ancient to middle Chinese vocabulary,deepen the study of reasons and mechanisms of the evolution of Chinese vocabulary.During the Shang and Zhou dynasties,the polysyllabic words appeared and caused the disyllablization of Chinese lexicon.It is the greatest change that had ever happened in the history of Chinese lexicon in the last three thousand years.The generation and development of disyllablization have a great influence on the basic features of the Chinese language.Without disyllablization,the total amount of lexicon in the lexicon system mainly made of monosyllabic words increased all the time,so from making a new phonetic form for every new word,to recording new word by borrowing existing syllables or changing existing syllables,they may make monosyllable overwhelmed or contain too many changes in monosyllabic,lower degree of distinction and so on.These problems deviate from the most basic theories that determine the structure of language:The Iconicity Principle which refers to the correspondence between form and meaning.When internal changes in monosyllabic is not enough to distinguish new words or to bear the appearances of a large amount of new words,it is a very natural thing to form new words by combining syllables or adding a syllable.And this is the generation of the disyllablization of Chinese lexicon.Disyllable is a new kind of distinctive feature when internal distinctive features of syllable are not enough to deal with the development of language.With the disyllablization of Chinese lexicon,the word-formation of polysyllabic words includes three brand modes:pronunciation,derivation and composition.From Ancient Chinese language to Middle Chinese language,pronunciation and derivation were always in the subordinate position,while composition is always the main word-formation mode of polysyllabic words.And inside the composition,joint type and partial formal account for the greatest proportion for more than 80%of it in the Middle Ages,while on the contrary,the verb object,the supplementary,the subject predicate and the overlap have always been in the subordinate position.There are three main reasons that joint type and partial formal always take absolute advantage inside the composition:Firstly,congenital advantages.In Chinese language,there are more positive phrases and joint phrases than other structures originally.Secondly,acquired superiority,adjoining principle and similar principle determine that positive phrases and joint phrases are easier to be lexicalized than other phrases in other structures.Thirdly,the acquired weakness of verb object type,subject predicate and verb complement type:Phrases made of verbs are more difficult to be lexicalized.The main affection of disyllablization to Chinese phonetic system is the idealization of phonetic system and the build of double syllable foot rhythm.Its affection to Chinese lexical system is that new words are formed with polysyllable,so more and more polysyllabic words come into basic vocabulary,the amount of polysyllabic words in normal vocabulary become larger and larger,so does the proportion it accounts.In the middle Ages,during Wei and Jin dynasties,Chinese language turned into a language which is mainly made of polysyllable.The influence of disyllablization on grammar system includes:(1)It enriched the Chinese word formation method,there came a brand new word-forming method called composition.With disyllablization,the main word-formation mode of Chinese language switched from configuration to composition.(2)It made Chinese grammar system more rigorous.(3)It deeply influenced the generation and development of verb-complement construction in Chinese language.