Selective Correlations In Combining Degree Adverbs And Adjectives In Modern Mandarin Chinese

The combination of adverbs and adjectives is a typical way of expressing degree in modern Mandarin Chinese. It is also an important way to classify adjectives and categorize them by differentiating their internal components. For example, Hen ("very"/"really") as a model degree adverb which can combine with most property adjectives; however, some descriptive adjectives and attributive words do not combine properly with degree adverbs because their degree levels are relatively fixated. Some forms of combinations of the adverbs and adjectives we thought could be freely created, are not acceptable considering intuition. For instance,"? Fan hen shou (The rice is very done),""? Shijian hen chang jiu (The time is really long),""? Mi hen chen (Very stale rice),""? Hen jingqi (Really booming),""? Hen yiyang (Very identical)," etc. It is the subjectivity and personal preference in combining adverbs and adjectives that leads to dynamic change in the combination forms. The use of the new degree adverbs and the latest combination rules prevail. Such new colloquial phenomena in combinations of degree adverbs and adjectives have been increasingly attracting attention of the associated scholars, which makes it necessary for a complete review of the previously specified conditions. This research aims to explain how such personalized combination of expressions develops by studying the mechanism and causes involved.This study is based on a comprehensive examination of the combination of17degree adverbs, adjectives regularly appearing in the HSK Chinese Proficiency Test, as well as their negative forms. We study the mechanism and causes of combination according to the principles of semantic bi-directional selection in addition to the degree of grammaticalization in degree adverbs and adjectival semantic categories. The preference of combination is in order as follows:"Hen">"Tai">"Feichang">"Ting">"Man">"Chao">"Te"">"Ji">"Xiangdang>"Zhen">"Shifen">"Hao">"Gewai">"Yichang">"Bao">"Guai">"Lao." Other than in attempts to highlight personal differences in degrees of attributive and modal cognition and thus using a large number of degree adverbs, affirmatives and negatives in degree categories are generally express in a euphemistic and reserved fashion. The degree adverbs with higher usage frequency follows semantic degree abrasion, the more freedom to combine the two comes with the frequent use of it. Adverbs with stricter combination conditions, however, indicate observable deviation between degree and the expectations in a speaker’s cognitive norms. Besides, the semantic retention in adverbs themselves is susceptible to being confined by the genre, syllables, the meanings of the followed adjectives, other conditions, and the like. Some generalized rules of combined forms have a correlation with the abrasion of adverbs themselves and rhetorical use, whereas the latest examples of combined components in degree adverbs are in a state of instability, with emphasis through exaggeration and without specific rules of use.