A Lexicalization Study On The Discourse Marker "X Shuo" Struture

This thesis discusses and researches the lexicalization of "x shuo" struture, which is the discourse marker in modern Chinese. For the length limits, the commonly-used structures "wo/ni shuo" "bie shuo" "yao shuo" and "keyi shuo" in modern Chinese are selected as examples in the research. There are five chapters and an introduction part included in this thesis.The introduction part deals with the backgrounds,purpose and the structure of the whole research.The four chapters as the main part of the research analyze five discourse marks: "wo/ni shuo" "bie shuo" "yao shuo" and "keyi shuo" respectively. By analyzing case-study of discourse mark's lexicalization, the thesis explores the processes, motivations and mechanisms of the lexicalization, differentiating different functions of semantics, pragmatics and cognize in the process of lexicalization as well as studying the influence for the word meaning change, which depends on the environments of languages in using and the language users' cognitive psychology.Chapter 1 describes modes of using, characters and functions of the "wo/ni shuo" structure, pointing out that "wo/ni shuo" structure is divided form the whole sentence by the meaning's bleaching and the independence of grammatical functions and becomes a specific discourse mark.In chapter 2, based on the analysis about the meaning and function of "bie shuo" structure, it points out that the function of this structure is resulted from the extending of "reminding".Chapter 3 describes the meanings, characters and functions of "yao shuo" structure, defines this discourse mark's evolution track: the hypothetic marker changed into topic marker, and then, the discourse marker is bleached from topic marker.Chapter 4 differentiates the different functions of "keyi shuo" struture, we also analyze the process of "keyi shuo" structure's changing into a discourse marker from a verb phrase.Chapter 5 makes a comparably analysis and summary on the processes of the bleaching and lexicalization of "Xshuo" structure as well as the motivations and mechanisms of the bleaching, which based on the first four chapters' descriptions and researches. And it also discusses the productivity of "Xshuo" structure.