A Morphological Study Of Double-Syllable Compound Adjectives In The Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards For International Chinese Language Education

This thesis selected 1030 bisyllabic compound adjectives from the vocabulary list of the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education(hereinafter referred to as “Grading Standard”)as the basic research object,and conducted an in-depth exploration of their morphological rules.Firstly,the meanings,morpheme meanings,semantic structure types,and form-class combinations of the 1030 double-syllable compound adjectives that met the requirements in the “Grading Standard” were determined and statistically analyzed.The “Construction Method of Bisyllabic Compound Adjectives in the Grading Standard” table and the“Form-Class Combinations of Bisyllabic Compound Adjectives in the Grading Standard”table were sorted out.Consequently,a comprehensive grasp of the word formation patterns for disyllabic compound adjectives from a formal perspective was achieved:From the perspective of form-class combination,the most common three combinations are “adjective+adjective” “adjective+noun” and “verb+noun.” From the perspective of structural type,compound adjectives account for 62% of the total,followed by“attributive-adjective” and “verb-object” structures.Overall,the correspondence between the form-class combination and the structural type of bisyllabic compound adjectives is highly concentrated: 99% of “adjective-adjective” combinations constitute compound adjectives,93% of “adjective-noun” combinations constitute “attributive-adjective”structures,and 94% of “verb-noun” combinations constitute “verb-object” structures.Then,starting from the structural type,the characteristics of each type of structure were explored according to the form-class combination method.Secondly,the morphological patterns of bisyllabic compound adjectives in the“Grading Standard” were analyzed in conjunction with different theories.Using embodied cognition and conceptual metaphor theory to analyze the strong lexical structure of “adjective-adjective” compound in Chinese,and the conclusion was drawn that the “adjective-adjective” compound has obvious conceptualization and lexical representation characteristics,and “Concrete attribute(adj.)+ Abstract attribute(adj.)” and“Concrete attribute(adj.)+ Concrete attribute(adj.)” are two relatively developed conceptualization patterns.In-depth exploration of the metaphorical linking mechanisms contained in these two conceptualization patterns can help learners better understand this type of vocabulary,thereby improving learning efficiency.The morphological patterns of other structural types of bisyllabic compound adjectives(mainly “attributive-adjective”and “verb-object” structures)were analyzed using the item and arrangement model,and some relatively regular morphological pattern subcategories were listed,such as“Adverb/Adjective expressing degree/tendency + Adjective” “bù + Adjective” “hǎo +Verb” “yǒu + Noun” “Verb/Adjective + rén” “kě + Verb” “Verb/Adjective + bodily element” “Adjective + rán” “Adjective + xìng” “reference Noun + Adjective(with color words being more common)”etc.Finally,based on the exploration of the double-syllable compound adjective morphology in the “Grading Standard”,this thesis points out its application value and suggestions in the teaching and learning of Chinese vocabulary and dictionary compilation: it can help teachers grasp the overall picture of the vocabulary they teach and use morphological features for flexible teaching;morphological patterns can be appropriately introduced in the classroom to reduce learners’ fear of difficulties and improve their efficiency in mastering vocabulary.Additionally,it is recommended to consider introducing some morphological patterns in the derivational morphology section of the outbound Chinese language learning dictionary to better handle word acquisition issues and cultivate Chinese learners’ morphological awareness.