Research On The Emerging Prepositions In Modern Chinese

Prepositions have always been an important research topic in the field of grammar.In the recent decades,there has been a consensus on the origin of prepositions:most prepositions come from verbs.However,language is not invariable.In the use of language,some verbs will be grammatizzed and gradually have the function of prepositions.This part of the word is in the middle state of the verb and the preposition,which is inclined to the verb,which is the beginning of the preposition.The academic research on prepositions is mostly focused on prepositions that have been prepositions,and insufficient attention is paid to this part of"new prepositions"(新介词).This paper selects three representative emerging prepositions--"Zhao"(找),"Ge"(搁)and"Zou"(走),and makes a detailed study on the grammatilization process and functions of these three emerging prepositions based on the previous studies.First of all,we investigate "Zhao" and find that there is a preposition usage of "Zhao" in modern Chinese.From a diachronic point of view,we study the usage of "Zhao" in ancient Chinese,and think that its grammaticalization process is due to the change of the syntactic structure and the expansion of the object range;from a synchronic point of view,we describe the function of the preposition "Zhao" in modern Chinese.Through the analysis and induction,we come to the conclusion that the preposition "Zhao" has two prepositional functions of introducing action and agent,and the function of the object of "Zhao" can be divided into four kinds in detail:the object of speech,the object of action participation,the object of request and the object of action.In modern Chinese,"Ge" also has the usage of verb and preposition.We have studied the meaning and syntactic form of the verb "Ge".We think that in the form of "Position +’Ge ’+ object",the verb "Ge" contains the position sememe,and the meaning of Preposition "Ge" comes from it.Secondly,we describe the function of the preposition "Ge" in modern Chinese from a synchronic point of view.The grammaticalization of the preposition "Ge" in modern Chinese is more complicated than that in traditional Chinese In northern Mandarin dialects,"Ge" has four functions:the place and time of introducing action,the basis or angle of introducing speaker,and the tools of introducing action.For the investigation of "Zou",we start with the meaning and usage of "Zou" in modern Chinese,and then investigate "Zou" from a diachronic perspective.We think that the grammaticalization of "Zou" is mainly due to the generalization of object,the influence of syntactic structure and the influence of v2.We summarize the three prepositional functions of "Zou" : the place of introduction,the starting point of introduction of non mobile verbs and the time of introduction.In addition to introducing the grammaticalization and functions of the three new prepositions,this paper also examines the motivation and mechanism of the verb prepositionalization.It holds that the three main motivations of the verb prepositionalization are semantic factors,syntactic factors and the influence of the verb v2.The grammaticalization mechanism mainly includes the re analysis of the structure and metaphor,and the three new prepositions are in the process of grammaticalization The reason of the problem is explained.