Schema Theory And The Interpretation Of Noun-Noun Compounds In Contemporary Chinese

I. Research Background and Significance of the StudyThis dissertation studies the patterns and interpretation of the contemporary Chinese Noun-Noun compounds (hereafter N-N compounds). Our choice of the topic for this research project is mainly motivated by two fascinating characteristics of Chinese word-formational processof N-N compounding -- its high productivity and the complexity of the underlying relationsbetween its two component constructions.The high productivity of N-N compounding in Chinese was testified by a general survey of the compounds in Modern Chinese Dictionary carried out by Yuan Chunfa and Huang Changning (as cited in Wang Jue, 2000: 42-43). In the dictionary, there are 43,097 two-morpheme compounds, out of which 22,016 are nominal compounds; among them, N-N compounds, with a totalof 12,583, outnumber all the other types.We conducted a similar survey of the compounds in Contemporary Chinese New Words Dictionary (2004), and found that, of all the 15,400 new words and expressions, the total number of two-morpheme and multiple-morpheme N-N compounds amount to 3,880, and that 1,215 are N-N compounds among the 3,147 two-morpheme words.From the above figures, we can see that N-N compounding is the most highly productive word-formational process to generate new words, and multiple-morpheme N-N compounding is the most productive compounding pattern.The reason for the high productivity of N-N compounding can be partly explained by its function. The most important pragmatic function of N-N compounds is to name new things. With the invention of many new products, concepts and beliefs, composite expressions are needed to represent the complex meanings. Hence, many new names are created to satisfy this urgent need. Of all the ways to invent new names, N-N compounding is a most efficient way, because it is easy and economical to put two nouns together to create a new concept.The second reason for the choice of our topic is the complexity of the underlying relations between the component constructions in N-N compounds. It is largely a result of conforming to the prkciple of economy in language use at the expense of clarity, which is very likely to lead to...