Study On The Physical Shape Words And Phrases In Chinese

The physical shape words and phrasrs,which are a kind of paradigmatic sets in Chinese full of image characteristic, are noun words and phrases named from Similar shape. They usually come from metaphor, such as cockscomb, cobblestone, etc.. Also they refer some things or phenomena by direct transferred meaning, such as arrowhead(sign), zygophyllum(plant), etc.. This paper chooses the physical shape words and phrasrs as research object, analyzing and discussing all-roundly 4264 selected from the Great Chinese Dictionary and Modern Chinese Dictionary(the fifth edition) , so as to reveal a series of basic feature of the physical shape words and phrasrs.In whole perspective, the physical shape words and phrasrs have four characteristics: (1) The concrete image. (2) The common. (3)The strong productivity. (4) The cognitive character.The history of research to the physical shape words and phrasrs has a long time. All through the ages, the Chinese Exegetics has always stressed to interpret the origin of name of things or phenomena, part of which is subject to the interpretation of the physical shape words and phrasrs. They often summarized the essential of name by the word xiangxing(象形). From 1950', the Chinese lexicology was truly established.And the research to the physical shape words and phrasrs has extended with the research to word-coinage and acceptation and obtained a series of achievements.The absorbing image of the physical shape words and phrasrs , which is various, has formed an opening system consisted of nature, human body and artificiality. As a result, they involves in 25 semantic category including astronomy , geography,and so on. And they have these features: (1) The singleness of absorbing image. (2) The motivations and arbitrariness of absorbing image. (3) The degree quality of absorbing image.The physical shape words and phrasrs include physical shape words and some physical shape phrasrs, the structural relation of which is comparatively complex. The physical shape words include simple words and compound words,while the physical shape phrasrs including quasi idiom and general fixed phrase. Yet the structural relation of them have some difference between the Ancient and Modern Chinese. At the other hand, the surface structure of some the physical shape words is different from its deep structure and come about polysemy phenomena.The types of the physical shape words and phrasrs are different from common metaphor sentence. The main difference is that metaphorical words are absent from the physical shape words. So there are only similes in the physical shape words.While some physical shape phrasrs have metaphorical words, and the similes exist in them.The meaning of the physical shape words and phrasrs contains rational meaning and colorful meaning. Based on if it can be understand from the combination of morpheme meaning, the meaning of the physical shape words and phrasrs can be divided into two kinds: direct and indirect. The direct means that the meaning of the physical shape words and phrasrs can be understand from the morphemes. And indirect means that the meaning can not be understand from the analysis of the morphemes. There are several reason of the indirect kind : (1) Be related to recessive universe; (2) Be related to the high degree of concise of it's morphemes; (3) Be related to outside motivation; (4) Be related to overlapping metaphor. Also there are many colorful meanings of the physical shape words and phrasrs such as image colouring, emotional colouring, style colouring, local accents, cultural coloring, time color, ab extra color, etc.. Furthermore, viewpoint and universe are greatly related to the polysemy and synonymous phenomenon. It should be noted that the unique image of the physical shape words and phrasrs is closely related to highlights of the implicit shape sememe. If the shape morpheme has certain formation frequency, it can form a sense, too.The physical shape words and phrasrs forms a kind of paradigmatic sets. And there are some smaller sets in them, such as synonymous classification, same morpheme and contrary order classification, same shape morpheme classification, homonym classification, abbreviation classification , etc..The generation causes of the physical shape words and phrasrs and metaphor lexicalization. It is complex of the generation causes of them, mainly contains: (1) The need of vividness; (2) The need of other particularity naming; (3) The drive of double syllable; (4) Other causes. There are also deeply internal causes of the generation of them, because the coinage activities are not simply human's subjective arbitrary acts, there are also objective basis and subjective conditions. It can be studied from diachronic and synchronic about the lexicalization of them. The study of diachronic is to analysis the process of how the phrase or clause becomes words. And the study of synchronic is to analysis the internal forms of concepts and the differences of the degree of lexicalization.There are unique characteristics of the interpretations of the physical shape words and phrasrs. The pattern of the interpretations of them in the Great Chinese Dictionary and Modern Chinese Dictionary(the fifth edition) are the same, while there are some differences between them. There are some question in the Great Chinese Dictionary such as term, examples, metalanguage, division and reunion of senses and etc.. And the interpretations of Modern Chinese Dictionary(the fifth edition) are more appropriate in some aspects after revision.There are physical shape words and phrasrs not only in Chinese, but also English. The comparative study of them between Chinese and English can help to recognize the basic characteristics of the physical shape words and phrasrs in Chinese. From the 461 words of English which are selected from the Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary(the 6th edition), there are similarities and differences in the characteristics of absorbing image and the frame between Chinese and English. Firstly, the absorbing image of Chinese and English are different, but the reference are the same; or the absorbing image of Chinese and English are the same, but the reference are different. In addition, there are asymmetry between Chinese and English, in other words, it is physical shape words and phrasrs in Chinese, but it isn't in English, or it is in English, but it isn't in Chinese. Secondly, them are commonly compound words in Chinese, some of the Chinese are derivative form or reduplicated form, there are also some simple words. But in English, compound words are not dominant, there are many words which come from transferred meaning of simple word.The study of physical shape words and phrasrs is just a beginning, and this paper just studies it preliminary from some aspects. And there are many deep exploration for us.