The Comparative Study Of English And Chinese Affixes Word‐formation From The Perspective Of Prototype Theory

According to western linguistic theory,affix,which is a bound morpheme attached to root,includes prefix,infix and suffix.The notion of affix is derived from western linguistic.Bloomfield gave the definition of"affix"in Linguistics(2002):"In the secondary derived structures,those adhesive forms that are attached to the base forms are affixes.The Chinese scholar Chen Wangdao,in his Brief Introduction of Grammar(文法简论,1978),discussed affix in chapter 5.He defined affix as“Affix,which stick to other elements,is the smallest element in language organization.It has the function of characterization and adding meanings.”At home,the study of affix can be divided into two stages:preliminary exploration stage and in-depth development phase.Lots of scholars began to study affixes from the perspective of word formation and grammar since the famous book-Ma Shi Wen Tong was published.During this stage,the study on affix was limited in some treatises.The main content was about to what position the derivative formed by affix belong in the word-formation system.However,after decades exploration,the study perspective of Chinese affixes has changed a lot,extending from the position and meaning of affix to category,attribute and function of affix,etc.The formation of English affix system could trace back to Old English Times.With plenty of French words borrowed into English,part of French and Latin which are influenced by English became the important materials of English word-forming.At the same time,some of English native affixes were abandoned.During this period of time,the system of English affix has been greatly developed and improved.The status of derived word-formation was further strengthened.Until modern English times,renaissance,industrial revolution and outward expansion lead to English borrow a large number of words from almost all the languages of the world,especially from French,Latin,Greek and Italian.What’s more,the combing of Greek and English affixes and roots lead to its productivity.Until now,the system of English affix is almost completed.Through comparing study of English-Chinese affixes,we can infer:(1)Most of English affixes are derived from Latin, French, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon, and these affixes own strong ability to construct new words. Only the minority of English affixes are native.(2)Most of Chinese affixes are ziyuan(自源)affixes.There is no single Chinese affix is similar to European languages.The word-formation ability of Chinese affixes are relatively weak.(3)The meaning of affix is weakened. There is no consensus standard on the degree of meaning weakened. The meaning includes rational meaning and accessorial meaning. The rational meaning refers to the basic part of the word meaning, while the affixes only express accessorial meaning.(4)Affix must be positioning morpheme, while not all the positioning morphemes are affixes. In Chinese, there are a lot of positioning morphemes have real meanings, so they can not be treated as affixes.(5)The affix has adhesive attribute. The English affix can only attach to root and word. However, the Chinese affix can also attach to word group.(6)Productivity is prototypical attribute of affixes, but some affixes do not own this kind of attribute. Therefore, productivity can not be treated as the standard to judge affix.(7)Both English and Chinese affixes present the tendency of Affixationization.(8)The number of English affixes are far more than Chinese affixes.(9)The borrowing and integration with other languages occur in both English and Chinese affixes.This paper adopted literature study method, which helps me to understand the history and present situation of related issues, and form a macroscopic understanding of research objects. Also I can get rich materials contributing to study of subject. The comparative method can more clearly contrast the commonness and difference between English and Chinese affixes. This paper adopt this method to make a comprehensive comparison study on the source, category and word-formation of affix and analysis its reason. Meanwhile, by using the method based on usage and referring a large number of empirical studies about the affix, I can contrast English and Chinese affixes from different perspectives. The main content of this paper is as follows:The first chapter introduces the research background, purpose, significance and innovation.The second chapter states the study of Chinese and English suffixes and summarize the aspects that need to further study.The third chapter is the theoretical foundation part. This paper will apply prototypical theory and this chapter will give a complete introduction of the theory and provide a comparison and summary of the origin and development of suffixes.The fourth chapter will offer a detailed comparison and analysis of the word-formation of the Chinese and English suffix. Firstly, the paper classifies the typical Chinese and English suffixed. Secondly, the paper compares the mode of Chinese and English word-formation.Through comparison and detailed study,it is clear that English belongs to form language which depends on suffixation, therefore, English is colorful. However, Chinese is form language. The words are mainly formed by compounding. So the number of Chinese affixes is very small. At last, I illustrate the meaning construction of quasi-affix and conclude the similarity of Chinese-English affix meaning construction.The fifth chapter discusses the role and importance the affix play in vocabulary acquisition.