A Study Of The Structure Of "Yiyang" On Semantics

"Yiyang"and the structure of"yiyang"is a worth-studying linguistic phenomenon, which is used frequently in mandarin Chinese. This article is fully absorbed in the study of the previous scholars, and tries to descript, analyze, and explain the structure from the diachronic point of view on its semantic evolvement, the synchronic point of view on its semantic characteristics and semantic types.On the view of semantic evolution, the quantifier phrase'yiyang', the adjective'yiyang'and the bikuang auxiliary'yiyang'are the three successive stages in the process of diachronic semantic evolution, which includes two processes: lexicalization and grammaticalization. According to the language materials, we discuss the diachronic development of'yiyang'combining with the semantic evolution of cognitive identity category on the following three sequential stages: the absolute equivalence of entity, the equivalence of class attribute and the similarity equivalence. During this evolution, semantic subjectivitisation and semantic generalization of identity category are the catalyzers.On the view of structural components and semantic function, we focuses on the components of X & Y in the structure of'as Y as X', X can be NP, VP or a predicate sentence.'yiyang'has the function of showing semantic state, through the structure of'as Y as X', NP highlights its state meaning which is hidden under its conceptual meaning; VP also strengthens the state meaning. It can be AP or VP in the position of Y, the semantic orientation of Y is determined by its semantic characteristics. The structure of'as Y as X'shows asymmetry between the positive sentence and negative sentence.On the view of semantic type,'A as Y as X'has three semantic types: Comparison meaning, analogy meaning, and guess meaning. In the first and second type, A and X are the same part of speech or structural relationship; while A and Y are the same basic semantic category in the first type, but the basic semantic category are completely different in the second type; In the third type, A and X are of different part of speech or structural relationship, and basic semantic category is also different. A and X often constitute the agent / patient relationship, A and Y constitute agent/action relationship, and sometimes Y is a description of the object A.