The Contrastive Study On The Items' Order Of Chinese And English Coordinate Construction

Grammatically. coordinate construction is the language unit which items combine equally and the items' order can be changed freely what does not change the whole unit's meaning and function. At the same time, because of the relations of the items' meaning, the condition of the items' pronunciation, as well as the constraints of the context and other factors, the items' order is not free absolutely but is dominated by some rules. The items' order of coordinate construction of both Chinese and English are dominated bv some rules which together with the order of practical expression have some similarities and differences because of many factors. The article writes up these rules and compares them. And then I find out eight similar rules between them, namely: the role of saliency(the secondary rules are not same completely), the rule of the item which meaning is earlier is in front of the later one, the rule of positivity, the rule of the items which have similar meaning are close, the rule of the phonology, which includes the rule of length. the rule of the item which contains a higher main vowel is in front of which contains a lower one and the rule of the item which contains a more obstruent initial segment is in front of which contains a less one. The latter two are apply to the binomial mainly. the rule of the degree of familiarity, the rule of parallelism and the rule of politeness; There are two inverse rules, namely: the Chinese rule of the item which meaning is weightier psychologically is in front of which meaning is lighter one, the English rule is reverse: the other Chinese rule is the meaning of the item which is bigger is in front of the smaller one, the English rule is reverse either. There are four special rules for Chinese coordinate construction, namely: the rule of tone, the rule of odd and even, the rule of the items which have same amount of syllable are close, the rule of the items which have the same syllable(s) are close: There are also five special rules for English coordinate construction, namely: the rule of God is first, the rule of the item which contains a shorter main vowel is in front of which contains a longer one. the rule of the item which contains more initial consonants is in front of which contains less, the rule of the item which contains more final consonants is in front of which contains less and the rule of the item which contains a more obstruent final segment is in front of which contains a less one. The latter four are apply to the binomial mainly. On the same time, I briefly compare the application of the rules in every language level of Chinese and English coordinate construction. Furthermore. the article enumerates some examples which are reverse order and tries to simply analyze what rules each of them follows. Finally, from the aspects such as cognition, phonology, context, culture and so on. the article detailedly analyzes how the similarities and differences of the rules which effect the items order of Chinese and English coordinate construction come into being.