A Functional Approach To The NG Shift In Modern Chinese

Generally speaking, the function and usage of a word is relatively fixed. However, there are occasions when the part of speech of a word shifts to and serves as another one without any morphological change as a result of the wandering of the function. In fact, such a phenomenon is known as the word-class shift, which is, on the contrary, temporary. For example, in the sentence "有事电话我", the part of speech of the word "电话" is shifted from noun to verb. With the development of social society and the accelerated pace of interpersonal communication, the phenomenon of word-class shift is becoming more and more common. In response to this phenomenon, scholars home and abroad begin to investigate on it from different perspectives as syntax, semantics, pragmatics, cognition. However, it is noticed that more attention has been shifted to the NG→VG shift. In modern Chinese, it remains an awkward task to determine the part of speech of a word until the publication of the fifth edition of the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. It gives a more comprehensive and authoritative reference. Therefore, this thesis aims to analyze the phenomenon of NG shift in modern Chinese, involving NG→VG and NG→AG. It is also expected that this thesis will provide implications and indications for the further study.Halliday's theory of Metafunction in SFL acts as the theoretical framework of the thesis. According to Halliday, people's demand for language is decided by the quality of language, which is the function that language must finish. This function is changing, with infinite possibilities, but we can group them into a limited number of more general functions of the abstract. In other words, the language of pure reason represents the general characteristics of language. Being one of the core ideas of SFL, the concept of Metafunction includes experiential function, interpersonal function and textual function, which is to be realized by the MOOD, Transitivity and Theme system respectively.According to the different constructions of the NG shift in modern Chinese, the thesis makes analysis on the selected material and summarizes the changes in the level of clause. Clauses involving the word-class shifted "阿Q" are selected from CCL. These NG shifts are analyzed to determine the type of construction of the shift. The Metafunctional analysis on these constructions is also provided. Statistical analysis on the distribution of shifted "阿Q" in different discourse types by appealing to the most authoritative searching engines Baidu and Google is given then. It also provides a new perspective for future research. The following conclusions could be drawn through an overview of the thesis:The difference between the congruent form and metaphorical form of the diverse constructions of the NG shift, mainly lies in the MOOD and Transitivity system. In terms of the MOOD system, the shifted NG acts as the Predicator and sometimes the Finite. If it is placed in the Adjunct, it may more or less reveal the addresser's attitude; In terms of the Transitivity system, the shifted NG normally functions as the Attribute or the manner in the position of the Circumstance, which permits the double or multiple semantic features of the shifted NG. Despite the fact that the difference between the congruent form and metaphorical form of the shifted NG constructions is not that obvious, in terms of the Theme system of clause, the shifted NG will definitely contribute to the cohesion of the text, thus making the text more cohesive.The statistics about the web pages from Baidu and Google reveal that the NG→AG is more common. In terms of the statistics about discourse types, NG shifts make their frequent appearance in the expressive and operative discourses, which may prove that the NG shift is temporary and is dependent on the context. All this will arouse people's attention to the norms of the NG shift usage.To sum up, the thesis analyzes the phenomenon of the NG shift by contrasting the difference between the congruent form and metaphorical form of the NG shift constructions. It has implications for the part of speech tagging system in modern Chinese. It may also provide a new research perspective for such modern Chinese that lacks stylistic markers. SFL has made the part of speech tagging system in modern Chinese possible.