The Asymmetric Study Of The Predicate-Complement Of Degree Structure In Modern Chinese

The predicate-complement of degree structure is a kind of very unique structurein the syntactic system of modern Chinese. It appears massively in modern spokenChinese. According to the present markedness theory of linguistic typology, sometheories related to pragmatics and cognitive linguistics, the thesis describes andexplains systematically the asymmetric phenomena in the predicate-complement ofdegree structure. The main content and perspectives are as follows.(1) We come to the conclusion that the predicate-complement of degree structureis a composite structure consisting of the predicate and the degree complement. Fromthe perspective of cognitive grammar, the predicate combined with the degreecomplement is a conceptually dependent component containing degree grade quantity.The degree complement, which combines itself with the predicate and expresses highdegree quantity，is a conceptually autonomous component.(2) We come to the conclusion that the predicate-complement of degree structurepertains to "Degree Category". The degree quantity expressed by thepredicate-complement of degree structure is blurry, abstract, subjective and relative.The predicate-complement of degree structure is also a kind of "Prototypical Category".The internal members differ by the typical nature and the non-typical nature, whichleads to the opposition of marked item and unmarked item. According to thesyntagmatic standard, paradigmatic standard, distribution standard and frequencystandard, we judge that the agglutinative type is unmarked, and the combining type ismarked, which leads to the asymmetry of the agglutinative type and the combiningtype. It is this kind of asymmetry that results in a series of asymmetric phenomena inthe domain of syntax, semantics, pragmatics of the predicate-complement of degreestructure.(3) The syntactic asymmetry of the predicate-complement of degree structure is asfollows: In the syntactic form，there is the asymmetry of the agglutinative type and thecombining type with the complement mark "de". It is related to grammaticalization degree of degree complement, and restricted by "Economy Principle" and "Maxim ofQuantity" in pragmatics, "Iconicity Principles" in cognitive linguistics, and therequirements of highlighting the information value. Restricted by "the NaturalLanguage’s Affirmation and Denial Axiom", the predicate-complement of degreestructure is formally endowed with the asymmetry of affirmation and denial. In thedomain of the syntactic function, the agglutinative type can act as predicate,complement, attributive, adverbial, subject and object, and can be followed by object.The combining type can act as predicate, subject, object, generally can’t act ascomplement, rarely can act as attributive and adverbial, generally can’t be followed byobject. The agglutinative type is easier to be moved forward to act as adverbial beforepredicate. The using frequency of the agglutinative is higher than that of the combiningtype. All members in the agglutinative type and the combining type also differ by theusing frequency. The above-mentioned asymmetry is related to the difference ofmarkedness.(4) The semantic asymmetry of the predicate-complement of degree structure is asfollows: As for the degree complement’s selection and restriction on the predicate, thewide and narrow extent of the degree complement’s combination with the predicate inthe agglutinative type and the combining type has a positive correlation with the highand low level of its own grammaticalization degree. The degree quantity expressed bythe predicate-complement of degree structure can be divided into three levels:extremely high quantity, super high quantity and high quantity. The grammaticalizationdegree of the degree complement in the agglutinative type is quite high, and thegrammaticalization degree of the degree complement in the combining type isrelatively low. The above-mentioned asymmetry is related to the difference ofmarkedness.(5) The pragmatic asymmetry of the predicate-complement of degree structure isas follows: In the aspect of the expressive function, there exists the asymmetry of theextreme point statement and the non-extreme point statement in thepredicate-complement of degree structure, which also results in the asymmetry of thestatement function. In the aspect of the appraisal function, the degree complementswhich tend to convey commendatory meaning mostly come from the agglutinativetype. The degree complements which tend to convey derogatory meaning mainly comefrom the combining type. The degree complements which can express commendatory meaning, neutral meaning and derogatory meaning mainly come from the agglutinativetype. The agglutinative type’s degree of highlighting information value is lower thanthe combining type’s. What the agglutinative type highlights is a kind of conventionalhigh-level degree quantity, and the combining type may highlight more temporarysignificances. The predicate-complement of degree structure is generally used toexpress subjective modality, rarely used to express the relatively objective degree,therefore, the degree complement has the selectional restriction to the predicate in theaspect of semantic modality.(6) Based on the conclusion made after doing a research on the asymmetry of thepredicate-complement of degree structure, we have listed a sequence of the degreecomplement in grammar teaching of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. A seriesof asymmetric phenomena of the predicate-complement of degree structure in theaspects of the syntactic form, use frequency, semantic choice and limitation,grammaticalization degree, highlight-degree of information value, are the key factorsresulting in the sequence of the grammar teaching items of the degree complement.