A Study On Lexicalization Of Three-syllable "X Bu Shi" In Modern Chinese

The three-syllable"Xbushi"in modern Chinese often appears as a word in spoken language and literary works,but there is little research on the lexicalization of"Xbushi".This research selects the words"mobushi（莫不是）","kebushi（可不是）","biebushi（别不是）","pabbushi（怕不是）","gaibushi（该不是）"and"yaobushi（要不是）"that have entered the authoritative reference book of modern Chinese as the research object.This study explores the lexicalization of"Xbushi"by combining diachronic and synchronic,descriptive and explanatory methods.We first analyzed the semantic-grammatical features of"Xbushi"in the synchronic plane,discussed the subjective and commentary semantic features of"Xbushi",and analyzed the syntactic function of adverbial modification of"Xbushi"."kebushi（可不是）"has also developed into a discourse marker,which can be formed into a sentence by itself;"yaobushi（要不是）"is used as a logical correlative word connecting two clauses,the rest of"Xbushi"can be adverbial modifier.Then we analyze the lexicalization process of each member of"Xbushi"from a diachronic perspective,and find that"Xbushi"is lexicalized before the predicate component and in the context of the rhetorical question,and the first is the predicate function of"bushi（不是）"Gradually disappeared,then the adhesion of"bushi（不是）"after"X"increased,finally adding"Xbushi"subjective modality.The process of word formation of"Xbushi"is from a cross-layer structure to a biased phrase,and then from a biased phrase down to a word,all of which have gone through three stages:initial conjunctive use,mid-term solidification,and final word formation.Through the analysis of the lexicalization process,this study divides the motivations that promote the lexicalization of"Xbushi"into two major reasons:internal and external.The interior of language is driven by three major factors:prosody drive,semantic weakening or shedding,and syntactic reanalysis;exterior language is driven by high frequency usage and the subjectivity and interactive subjectivity of language;Under the action of the two major mechanisms of absorption and reanalysis,they finally merged into words.