Modern Chinese Polysemy,

Polyseme is a general lexical phenomenon of all kinds of the languages in the world, which has been formed during the diachronic development of languages and becomes the object of the synchronic linguistics study for its using in language systems on some synchronic plane. The dissertation takes the polysemous words in modern Chinese lexical system as its study object to discuss the production of polyseme, the relation of the sememes and as well as its status in modern Chinese lexical system.The thesis consists of five parts as below. Chapter one, the preface;Chapter two, the production of polyseme;Chapter three, the relation of the sememes;Chapter four, the quantitative study on the polysemous words in Xiandai Hanyu Cidian;Chapter five, the analysis on the dynamic function of the polysemous words in modern Chinese.In the first chapter we introduce the situation of the research on polysemous words in modern Chinese in brief and account for the instructional theories and study methods of the thesis.The second chapter mainly discusses the production of polyseme, which is made up of two parts. The first one is to analyze the foundation and condition of the production of polyseme. In this part, we analyze the contradiction between the finity of the signifier and the infinity of the signified in linguistic sign system to expound the necessary of the production of polyseme. On the other hand, we explain the cognition foundation of the production of polyseme from the aspect of cognition rule. In the second part we analyze the linguistic and non-linguistic factors which result in the production of the sememes of polysemous words.In the third chapter we analyze and generalize the relations of the sememes of polysemous words. The relations of sememes are vitals of polysmous words, so it is very important to discuss them for the study on polyseme. During the development of the language the meanings of words are accumulated, which resulted in the production of polysemous words in modern Chinese eventually. The cause of the formation of polysemous words is so complex that there are various relations among the sememes.The sememes of poiysemous words are numerous and have various causes of formation. The objectivity and cognition subject and language performance are the three main components effecting on the formation mode of the meaning. We take them as outline to guide the analysis of the concrete and various relationship of the sememes.Chapter four, the quantitative study on the poiysemous words in Xiandai Hanyu Cidian. For this study we build a database of the poiysemous words in Xiandai Hanyu Cidian specially. We do statistical calculation on the quantity of the poiysemous words and their sememes in Xiandai Hanyu Cidian subjoined edition 2002 and then make a static description of the status of the poiysemous words in modem Chinese.Chapter five, the analysis on the dynamic function of the poiysemous words in modern Chinese, we descript the dynamic pragmatic functions of the poiysemous words on the base of the observation of the usage degree of poiysemous words by Xiandai Hanyu Pinlv Cidian and the their frequency statistics by the oral corpus. At last we make a comprehensive comment on the function of the poiysemous words in modern Chinese with the result of the static and dynamic quantitative study.The instructional theories of the dissertation lie in the following aspects. One is the linguistic sign theory of general linguistics. The second is the categorization theory of cognitive linguistics. The other is the conclusion of the study on language meaning of linguistic philosophy.The major research technique adopted by this paper is as below. Firstly, combine diachronic study with synchronic study. The object of the study is the poiysemous words in modern Chinese. Though several sememes in each poiysemous paradigm are used together in modern Chinese, they have been formed by history. The discussion on poiysemous word must combine the diachronic study with synchronic study for every poiysemous word is the production of the interaction of diachronic system and synchronic system.Secondly, combine description with explanation. To study on the relations among the sememes of the poiysemous words in modern Chinese, we have to not only observe them carefully but also give relative theoretical explanation. Only so, we can sum up the rules of the sememes relation from the numerous and complicated meanings. We analyze and generalize the sememes relations of poiysemous words following therelations of the things and the law of cognition as well as the rules of language performance in the dissertation, which are guided by the three aspects such as objectivity and cognition subject and language performance.Thirdly, combine quantitative study with qualitative study and unify static description with dynamic description. The dissertation uses the database to deal with static and dynamic quantitative study on the polysemous words in Xiandai Hanyu Cidian. The calculation of the quantity of the words and sememes of the polysemous in Xiandai Hanyu Cidian is static quantitative study and the statistical work on the usage degree and frequency is dynamic quantitative study. On the basis of quantitative study above, we descript statically and dynamically the status of the polysemous words in modern Chinese, and then associating the static and dynamic description, we give a comprehensive comment on the polyseme.There are two innovations in the dissertation. One is that we have an all-around and systematic analysis and description of the formation of sememes and relationship among them on the basis of distinguishing the mode of the sememes formation from that of the relations among the sememes. The other is that we adopt quantitative means in the study on polyseme and according to the result of quantitative study give an impersonal and scientific remark on the status of polysemous words in modern Chinese system.Polyseme is an important lexical phenomenon. It is significant to discuss it deeply and generally. Limited to time and ability of the author, there are still a number of problems not mentioned in the dissertation which would be studied on in future.