A Study On Monosyllabic Localizers In Modern Chinese From The Perspective Of Grammaticalization

This dissertation focues on the polysemy and grammatical versatility of monosyllabic localizers in modern Chinese with corpus studies from the perspective of grammaticalization. The processes, motivation and degree of grammaticalization are discussed as well.The dissertation is divided into 5 chapters. Chapter 1 is introduction, chapter 2 is a brief introduction of the corpus, chapter 3 is about the semantic diversity of monosyllabic localizers, chapter 4 focuses on the grammatical function of monosyllabic localizers, chapter 5 is about the degree of grammaticalization.Chapter 1 is the preface, introducing the relevant and current situation, the significance relating to this research and the theoretical basis and the research approaches of this dissertation.Chapter 2 is about the relationship between the corpus and the study from the perspective of grammaticalization, also it talks about the principles of the text choosing and then corpus processing.Chapter 3 discusses the semantic processes of grammaticalization of monosyllabic localizers. Firstly, the features of non-direction, asymmetry and cultural meaning of monosyllabic localizers are talked about. Secondly, the analysis of semantic representation with corpus studies. Desemanticization, as conceived in this chapter, is the loss in meaning. It results from the usage of language items with concrete meanings that are reinterpreted in specific contexts with more abstract, grammatical meanings. Thirdly, the ways of desemanticization are: generalization, differentiation and mixture. Fourthly, the study of the monosyllabic localizers on grammaticalization is of great significance for the language universals, also the dissertation gives Chinese materials for two grammaticalization processes mentioned in World Lexicon of Grammaticalization.Chapter 4 focuses on the morphological and syntactic processes of grammaticalization of monosyllabic localizers from the perspective of grammatical function. Firstly, some prototypical formal structures of compounds which are composed of localizers and other words are productive. Secondly, the discussion of the syntactic function shows that the features of monosyllabic localizers used as both lexical word and function word. Thirdly, it explores the marking function of monosyllabic localizers, especially used as the marker of location and aspect. Fourthly, from the perspective of morphology and syntax the clines of grammaticalization can be defined as two ways: from lexical word to function word and from word to word-internal element.Chapter 5 is composed of two parts: the motivation of grammaticalization of monosyllabic localizers and the degree of grammaticalization of monosyllabic localizers. The discussion of motivation is concerned with three points: frequency, cognitive factors and language construction. It is frequency that is regarded as a very important reason of grammaticalization. Cognitive factors is another main reason of the semantic bleaching of monosyllabic localizers, and metaphor is the major mechanism of change at the semantic level. The last motivation is about the internal factors of language, and the reanalysis is the major mechanism of change at the morph-syntactic level. For the degree of grammaticalization, the dissertation gives four parameters: desemanticization, used as post-element of a phrase, decategorialization and phonetic reduction. With the research mentioned above, the dissertation proposes there is the correlation of syntax with semantics.The concluding part gives a summary of the theories, methodology and conclusions in this dissertation, and points out the imperfectness in this research as well as suggestions in further work.The innovation of this dissertation is as follows: Firstly, this study which is based on the theory of grammticalization illustrates the usages of monosyllabic localizers in modern Chinese. It is helpful to explain many questions resulting from the change of language from the perspective of grammaticalization. The dissertation points out the correlation of syntax with semantic of monosyllabic localizers during the grammaticalization processes. This is the theoretical innovation of this research.Secondly, the dissertation does the research with the approaches of corpus studies. The corpus provides a great many language materials. The conclusion of this research which is based on the language materials is convincing. The methodology of this dissertation is characterized with innovation.Thirdly, this dissertation focuses on the whole class of monosyllabic localizers on grammaticalization and is different from the earlier study on the grammaticalization which usually focuses on a specific word.The significance of the present work is to give a full description and interpretation of monosyllabic localizers in modern Chinese from the perspective of grammaticalization. The study which is helpful to explore the language universals of general linguistics and explain the motivation of language variation in Chinese linguistics research has theoretical value.