A Contrastive Exploration Of Chinese And English Semi-affixes

In modern Chinese and English, such semi-affixes as men(门), ruan(软), zu(族), wise and soft exist. Scholars both at home and abroad have taken a great interest in the generation of semi-affixes. In the last few decades, a consensus has been reached, that semi-affixes are in the midway between free morphemes and typical affixes. From the perspective of grammaticalization theory, based on the previous research, the thesis focuses on the identification and analysis of Chinese and English semi-affixes and the comparisons between the two languages in order to find out the similarities and differences.Firstly, more than one hundred “assumed semi-affixes” collected undergo the identifying procedures according to the three characteristics(grammaticalization, fixed position and productivity) of semi-affixes. And twenty Chinese semi-affixes are identified. Then a careful analysis is conducted on the mechanisms of grammaticalization of these semi-affixes. It turns out that apart from generalization and metaphor, language contact is the most important mechanism in the grammaticalization of Chinese semi-affixes.Secondly, the same procedure goes with English “assumed semi-affixes”. Thirteen English semi-affixes are identified and the mechanisms of grammaticalization of English semi-affixes are discussed. Most scholars agree that metaphor, generalization and metonymy are the mechanisms of grammaticalization of English semi-affixes. However, due to the status of English, semantic proliferation and Old-English inheritage rather than language contact are the other two mechanisms of grammaticalization of English semi-affixes.Thirdly, a comparative analysis is conducted in respect of similarities and differences between Chinese and English semi-affixes. The similarities are discussed from two aspects. In terms of internal factors of language, Chinese and English semi-affixes are the outcome of grammaticalization; they are capable of tagging part-of-speech; the generation of semi-affixes accords with the principle of least effort. And external factors include people’s pursuit of novelty and the boosting of new media. There are two main differences between these two languages. In terms of quantity, Chinese semi-affixes are more than English semi-affixes; and Chinese has greater potentiality in producing new semi-affixes, because English has a developed affix system which confines the development of semi-affixes, but Chinese affix system develops gradually and is influenced by English affixation so the thesis beilive that more new Chinese semi-affixes will come into being in the future. Loan semi-affixes which are generated in recent years occupy the majority of Chinese semi-affixes owing to the influence of English. There are few loan semi-affixes in English. The history of these loan semi-affixes should trace back to 12 th or 13 th centuries and they have completely melted into contemprary English. Due to the deficiency of the resources of history, those semi-affixes are not included in the category of loan semi-affixes in the thesis.