A Research On The Relationship Between Word Meaning And Morphemic Meaning Of Bi-syllabic Compounds In Modern Chinese

The thesis takes a sample of over ten thousand 2-element compounds from The Modern Chinese Dictionary (2002) as its research basis. On a general conclusion of the previous research on the relationship between word meaning and its morphemic meaning of a compound, the thesis casts a new light on the research work. That is it makes the research from the view of the understanding the word meaning, not the generation of the word meaning. Understanding a compound means get to know how its compounding elements can be paraphrased correctly. Since the word meaning given in the dictionary is a kind of authoritative paraphrasis, it is reasonable to believe that the understanding is correct. What remains is to analyze how the compounding elements have been explained in the word meaning from the dictionary. This concept of analysis on the relationship between wording meaning and its morphemic meaning of a compound can be called as a word meaning analysis approach.According to the research, the 2-element compounds fall into two main categories: compounds with two synonymous elements and compounds with two heteronymous elements. The elements in the former are usually coordinate. The latter can be divided into compounds with two antonymous coordinate elements, compounds with two congeneric coordinate elements, compounds with two continuous actions, compounds with one element subordinate to another, compounds with one element as a head and another as a modifier, and compounds with one element governing another. The relationship between the two elements in a compound is different and the paraphrasis of a compound varies a lot.The compound with two synonymous elements is often paraphrased with one of its element, or another synonymy formed with one of its element, or even two synonymies formed with the two elements respectively. The compound can be so paraphrased simply because the two elements are synonymous and can paraphrase each another. In the paraphrasis appears the one or two of the elements, therefore, the relationship between word meaning and morphemic meaning may be boiled down to ELEMENT PARAPHRASIS. For some of the compounds with two synonymous elements, the meaning is not paraphrased but explained. The explanation is often done according to the meaning of the elements in the compounding environment. In this case the elements usually have their own implied meanings, so the explanation is to bring them out clearly. Compound thus explained may be identified with ELEMENT AS A KEY EXPLANATION.The compound with two antonymous elements has various kinds according to the relations between the two elements. Generally speaking, if the two elements express two extremes of a thing or a person, they may either refer to the extent of the extremeness of the thing/person, or refer to the different cases of the thing/person. So compounds formed this way may either function as a noun or an adverb. If the two elements have an complementary relationship, the meaning of the compound may refer to either of the elements.The compound with two congeneric coordinate elements and the that with two continuous actions usually carry the meaning of their elements literally.The compound with one element subordinate to another is usually a compounding noun, and...