A Study On Constituent Semantics Of Disyllable Compound Structure In Mahāsāmghika-vinaya

This dissertation, with linguistic materials from Chinese translation of Mahāsāmghika-vinaya, makes an inquiry into Constituent Semantics of Disyllable Compound structure in Mah(?)s(?)mghika-vinaya. It consists of seven chapters.Chapter one introduces Mahāsāmghika-vinaya in terms of contents, translator and value of the linguistic materials. It also details characteristics on phrases, words and characters, trying to reach its value for further study from multiple angles.Chapter two briefs the status of study on Disyllable Compound Structure and purpose and value of this dissertation. Due to the ambiguity of classification and typology of words and phrase of Chinese language, esp. disyllable phrase and expression, this dissertation takes as the researching object the typical and traditional disyllable compound phrase and non-typical disyllable compound phrase with dual characters of both compound phrase and expression, the latter having Disyllable Compound Structure as its name. By summing up the previous literatures in this field, it is found that there is much room for further study for the semantic approach, thus, this dissertation, by researching the motivation of the Compound Structure of six types, including parataxis and core-modifying (偏正) compound, tries to reveal what these two linguistic morphemes at the surface structural level lie in the Constituent Semantics at the deep structural level, (1) to conclude which two elements from semantic structure are abstracted into the surface structural level functioning as compounding model; (2) to determine the relationship between denotations of the compound structure and semantic structure, saying, which elements are abstracted from the semantic structure to constitute the compound denotation, how such compound denotation is formed.Chapter three deals with disyllable compound structure in terms of classification, theoretic study, methods and researching steps adopted. By the standard whether property (性狀) or action relations can grow out of the compound structure, disyllable compound structures are classified into conceptual structure (概念结构) and declarative structure (表述结构). If property or action relations does not grow out of paratactic disyllable compound structure, such structure is conceptual structure. If property or action relations grows out of such structures as core-modifying (偏正), S-V (主谓),VO (述賓),VC (述補)和N-Q (量補式), these structures are declarative. By the standard whether or not there is morpheme of verb in declarative structure, it is classified into verb-core declarative and noun-core declarative structure. Declarative structure can be of multiple layers according to number of predicate phrases (谓词) embedded. It is single-layer declarative structure if there is only one predicate phrase; it is still single-layer declarative structure if there is an active predicate phrase, or a non- active predicate phrase functioning as predicate phrase or as property predicate phrase, and a connecting predicate phrase (关系谓词) exists at the same time, because such active predicate phrase, non- active predicate phrase or property predicate phrase are the core predicate phrase of the structure. The structure is multi-layer if there is connecting predicate phrase connecting several corepredicate phrases. To be summed up, there are several types of disyllable compound structure as follows:(1) conceptual structure (parallel compound structure)(2) declarative structure①verb-core declarative structure including S-V (主谓), V-O (述賓), V-C (述補), core-modifying structure with verb morpheme (含有动词性语素的偏正式複 合结构): single-layer declarative structure, multi-layer declarative structure;②noun-core declarative structure, including noun-noun core-modifying compound structure (名名複合的偏正式结构) and quantifier-as-modifying compound structure (量補式複合结构): single-layer noun-core declarative structure and multi-layer noun-core declarative structure.Chapter three adopts semantic classifying method formulated by Jia Yah De and Zhu Yan, details some deviate concepts employed in analyzing the declarative structure. It also employs both synchronic and diachronic approach, but the latter is more frequently used.Chapter four analyzes constituent semantics of conceptual structure and formation model of the compound structure and compound denotation.Chapter five and six respectively describe, with method formulated by Zhu Yan in classifying compound phrases of modem Chinese language, semantics constituent of verb-core declarative structure and noun-core declarative structure. Adoption of such method in studying history of modem Chinese phrase aims at comparing models of compound structure at a certain historical time and modem era, searching structural rules of compound expressions of both ancient and modem time. These two chapters also analyze formation models of declarative structure and constituent semantics of compound structure.Chapter seven is the concluding one. It points out there are four types of constituent semantics of conceptual structure: overlap-synonyms, overlap- principal and subordinate, parataxis-relevant denotations, parataxis-opposites. The followings are basic models of constituent semantics of conceptual structure: Actor-action, Actor-action -goal, Actor-action -result etc.Other constituent semantics are deviates of the above models via predicate phrase connecting with other possessive(s) or model of semantic constituent. So it is with modem declarative structure. It is concluded that disyllable compounds has established itself from East Jin Dynasty as basic frame for modem Chinese language.The concluding chapter also points out that formations of compound structure and its denotation are the results of abstraction of semantic element(s) at the deep structural level. Formation of conceptual structure is the result of abstraction of two semantic elements at the same time, or just one to form "偏義". My analysis of the genesis of "偏義" is different from routine opinion. Declarative structure is centripetal, with one semantic element as core denotation and others functioning as affixation. Generally, if principal and subordinate elements abstracted when denoting are identical, the denotation is comparable to compounding of the two, for example, "掃篲". If form and elements abstracted is not identical, denotation of the compound will avert (轉指), such as泉監. Some compounds are factually the averting denotation resulted in twice declaration and abstraction of semantic element, such as白衣, which is firstly declared as白衣服, secondly as俗人穿白衣服, in which case, the agent "俗人" is abstracted as the core denotation, while denotation of the first time functions as affixation.