A Discussion On The Structure Feature And Grammaticalization Of "东 X 西 Y"

There are 16 location words in modern Chinese.Among them,word pairs like "东"and"西 "西","左" and "右"can be used in symmetry format.The symmetry format is composed of two direct components,which contains the same number of words and similar structure,and the two corresponding words are synonyms or antonyms.This paper studies"东" X 西 Y"format from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives.At the synchronic level,"东 X 西 Y" format is mainly composed of verbs or verb phrases.As a phrase.it can be used as predicate,attributive or object.As an independent clause,it has coordinate relations or continuity with other clauses.The basic meaning of the format is the specific location,and later it extended to opposite or repetition,like "everywhere".When X and Y have the similar meaning,"东 X 西 Y"often expresses repeated actions or situations.When X and Y have the opposite meaning,"东 X 西 Y" expresses specific location or opposite meaning.At the diachronic level,the grammaticalization of "东"and "西"has been discussed.During the Han Dynasty,"东"and "西"expressed the specific location.After that,they were increasingly used as adverbials,so their meanings began to change.During the Six Dynasty,the four-character symmetry format began to appear as well as the opposite meaning.Later in Tang and Five Dynasties,the format began to express repetition with the increasing number of oral language data.From Song to Qing dynasty,"东 X 西 Y" has been used frequently.Today,the above three meanings of "东 X 西 Y" coexist in modern Chinese.