Preliminary Study On The Asymmetry Four-character Structure

The four-character structure, which is a unique language phenomenon, has several score years from the born to current. It is an important component in the Chinese vocabulary. According to the structure and significance of the four-character structure, it can be classified into symmetry and asymmetry. Modern Chinese Dictionary (fifth edition) contains 5,579 four-character structure words. Among of them, 3,768 four-character structure words are asymmetry, accounting for 67.54%.The number of morphemes of the asymmetry four-character structure is different. There is one morpheme, two, three or four morphemes. The asymmetry four-character structure words containing four morphemes account for 94.29%. The number of terms of the asymmetry four-character structure is also different. The asymmetry four-character structure words containing four terms are the most, accounting for 45.20%. According to the significance, the asymmetry four-character structure words can be divided into four kinds: technical terms, ordinary words, locutions and idioms.When we spell,phonetic form contains all link writing, two sections written (2 +2 type, 1 +3 type, 3 +1 type), three sections written (2 +1 +1 type, 1 +1 +2 type), and four sections written. Among of them, 2+2 type accounts for 97.83%, which covers up the asymmetry of the structure. According to the grammatical structure, there are several forms such as Modifier-noun, Subject-predicate, Verb-Object, Predicate-complement, continuous action, telescopic and others. Modifier-noun and Subject-predicate are in the majority, accounting for 50.96% and 21.82%. Some of the asymmetry four-character structure can be realized to two or three structures in the interior level.It is difficulty to differentiate the same structure balancly between front and back.This situation shows that the interior level of the above asymmetry four-character structure is unbalanced.The asymmetry four-character structure uses four interpretation ways to form four Semantic Structure including explanation meaning, domination meaning, modification meaning and supplementary mening respectively. It is different from symmetry four-character structure which has the same, similar and opposite meaning. Most of the asymmetry four-character structure belongs to substantive, which can act as subject, object and attribute. A small part of them belongs to predicate, which can act as predicate, adverbial and complement. The asymmetry four-character structure has strong practicality and high usage frequency. Moreover, it has distinct rhetorical features.Many papers have investigated the symmetry of four-character structure. However, most of them ignored the opposite facet that is asymmetry hid by it. In my point of view, it is much significative for realizing the nature of entire vocabulary to study four-character structure from asymmetry point of view.