A Study Of Monosyllabic Transliterated Foreign Morphemes In Modern Chinese From The Perspective Of Decategorization

Monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes prove to be very productive in word formation and play an important role in Chinese morpheme system and have attracted more and more attention.However,previous studies mainly involve static description about them,such as the origin,classification,identification,significance,usage,social reason for their generation.As for the cognitive motivations and mechanisms for the creation and evolvement of monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes,there are very few.Therefore,this thesis will take a decategorization perspective around the following three questions:1)What are the representation forms of monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes in Chinese?2)How are monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes created in Chinese?3)What are the cognitive mechanisms of decategorization for monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes in word formation in Chinese?Based on previous studies,this paper takes descriptive and explanatory research methods.Descriptive research method mainly presents,describes and analyzes the features of the data collected from new words dictionaries and websites;while explanatory research method applies decategorization theory,which includes categorization,decategorization and recategorization,and prominence and metaphoric mechanisms to have a cognitive explanation for the creation,evolvement and word formation of monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes.After careful analysis and exploration,we come to the following conclusions.First,as for the original category of monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes,they are not morphemes at the very beginning but are just meaningless syllables in making up transliteration words and are rather fixed in their position.Second,motivated by the decategorization process,especially decategorization and recategorization,monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes come into existence.Semantically,they evolve from meaningless syllables to be meaningful morphemes with the first round of decategorization and recategorization and some even develop more extended meanings through the second round or more.Syntactically,they can function as Head,Modifier or Complement and are more flexible in the position of morpheme combination.They can occupy either the initial or final position,or stand as independent words.Third,the working mechanisms of decategorization for monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes in word formation mainly involve prominence,metaphor and metonymy.The prominence of different qualia roles for nominal morphemes and argument roles for predicative morphemes contributes to potential collocates with the transliteration morphemes in terms of the original meanings.With metaphor and metonymy,these morphemes develop more and more extended meanings and are more productive in word formation.The cognitive decategorizational approach towards monosyllabic transliterated foreign morphemes in this thesis is hoped to enrich relevant studies,provide some implications for practical teaching,language use,and future studies,while potential limitations and suggestions also invite further studies.