The Syntax Of Apposition

This dissertation focuses on the syntax of apposition. Since Ma Jianzhong kept an eye on apposition, famous grammarians such as Li Jinxi, Zhao Yuanren, Lu Shuxiang&Zhu Dexi, Hu Yushu, Huang Borong&Liao Xidong, Xin Fuyi etc have discussed apposition in special; the focus is the syntactic structure of apposition. In appearance apposition possesses the feature of coordination, while apposition and coordination repels each other on the semantics, and the semantics of apposition is charaterized by certain modifiability and predication. Therefore, there is a dilemma of the classification of syntactic structure of apposition. Regarding apposition as an independent syntactic structure will form the exception to the present syntactic structure system, while to regard apposition as a subtype of one certain syntactic structure will not explain the distinctive feature of apposition. To solve this dilemma as the purpose and to be guided by ideology of descriptive adequacy and explanatory adequacy, the dissertation fully describes grammatical forms and defining features of apposition based on the predecessors’ researches, identifies the linked linear position and the semantic equivalent as two essential standard to judge appositions and analyzes the appsearance features and semantic relationship of apposition constituents, and fully parses and explains the semantics relations and types in the syntactic constitutes of apposition, it identifies apposition as the subcategory of subject-predicate phrase with invisible mark of "Shi (是)"in syntax. This identification clears up syntactic status and mechanism of grammatical functions of apposition and solves the problem of the dilemma of apposition. From the perspective of diachronic the dissertation explores the mechanism and the process of syntactic structure formation and change of apposition by examining cases of appositional compounds change in modern Chinese, which provides brand new interpretation for apposition from the angle of language change. In synchronic, starting from the comparison of apposition in English and Chinese, the dissertation raises the syntactic implication universal hypothesis and the implication universal hypothesis for the interface between the syntax and the morphology in apposition, and it tests and verifies both of implicational universals hypothesis of apposition by cross-language evidences. The verification promulgates the syntactic relationships among apposition as a subject-predicate structure and coordination and modification. This research investigates apposition’s appearances, definitions, typical features, the semantic mechanism and its types, syntactic collocations and interface relations between syntax and morphology as well as primary examining across languages, all those comes into being a systemic researching on the syntax of apposition. The whole research composes of6chapters as followings:Chapter1is the introduction. The chapter elaborates the objects, key purposes and the task of the research, outlines the study contents of predecessors and presents the thoughts, methods and approaches involved, which provides theoretical foundation for the following research. All researches of predecessors make it clear that the key problem apposition research need to solve is the problem of syntax. The problems involved in this chapter show clearly the key point, guiding ideology and technological means of apposition research in this dissertation.Chapter2is the definition of apposition, which sums up typical defining features of apposition and provides a specific definition of apposition in this research. Under the name of linear position principle and semantic equivalent principle, this chapter identifies the definition features of apposition in deferent periods by interactive testing between predecessors’definitions or concepts and the appearances of apposition. Based on all those features apposition is defined and the definition is used to examine the classic language data of predecessors, which carries out the mutual reflection method of "from appearance to semantic" and "from semantic to appearance". Both the linked linear position and semantic equivalent are indentified as the indispensible distinguishing rule of apposition, which sets up a standard for further research.Chapter3is about collocation mechanism of apposition, which starts with the category of apposition constituents and the relation between the semantic and the structure of apposition constituents, and then probes into the typical parameters features of apposition as NP and integrates this with check analysis of apposition by Three Principals of Clauses, and draws the conclusion that apposition is a sub-subject-predicate syntactic structure type with an invisible mark of "Shi (是)", and analyses the semantic categories of apposition constituents and the pragmatics values of apposition further. From this point and all phrase types, apposition is the subcategory of phrases classified by semantic types in terms of linear position standard or phrases classified by linear position standard in terms of semantic types. Whatever the standard of classification is applied, apposition can not be a typical dependent type of phrases. Inspecting apposition by Three Principals of Clauses reveals three clausization processes of semantic associating, relation marks allocating and structure simplifying, which makes apposition come into being. The inspecting shows that apposition is the projection of appositional clause and answers why "Shi (是)" is invisible in apposition."Shi (是)"is invisible as the result of structure simplifying after semantic associating and relation marks allocating. The structure simplifying does not change6types of semantic of "Shi (是)"among constituents in apposition, which are information expression determined by the discourse apposition appear in.Chapter4examines diachronic change of apposition. The examining is based on the contrastive results of nouns typical parameters and semantic features of apposition in Chinese between ancient and modern times, and based on typical change cases of equivalence compound words in different parts of speech as the fundamental facts. The examining shows that apposition existing before the Western Zhou Dynasty was such a language formation by the social needs to express honor to somebody, and the language formation was analogized to all status to express the multi-dimensional of events in speech. The change involves the processes of grammaticalization and lexicalization. The process of grammaticalization lies in apposition till today being used as a fixed syntactic structure slot. The process of lexicalization lies in appositional compound words as the result of change. In the views of the continuum of language change, the grammatical means to express the multi-dimensional of events is overlapping, which exists in both forms and meanings. In the one polar of the continuum of grammaticalization is overlapping meanings and forms, and another polar is apposition which is just the overlap of meaning but not forms. From the diachronic, the need to express the multi-dimensional of events at first reflected in addressing somebody respectfully and then was analogized to all things in speech, and finally apposition came into being as what it is now. From the synchronic, there is a continuum in which overlapping is on one polar and apposition is on the other polar. From the point of apposition, apposition is the result of social needs to express the multi-dimensional of events in speech, and the end of change is the appositional compound words.Chapter5compares apposition in English and Chinese, and verifies the hypothesis of implicational universal of apposition cross-language. The comparison of the definitions, the classifications of semantics, the syntactic structures and pragmatic functions of apposition in English and Chinese shows that the key parameters of apposition are similar in the definitions, the classifications of semantics, the syntactic structures and pragmatic functions, because English and Chinese are SVO. The season for forms mismatching of apposition in English is that English is a linguistic form with morphology, while the reason for linear position requirement of apposition in Chinese is that Chinese is a linguistic form without morphology. The comparison accords with NP relativization operation universal of NPAH(Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy) presented by Keenan&Comrie (1977). Based on the comparison and examining conclusions of dynamics and changes of apposition in Chapter4we present two implicational universals hypotheses:one is appositional relation/phrase/clause(?)coordinative relation/phrase/clause(?) modifying relation/phrase/clause; another is apposition(?)appositional compounds regarded as the interface between syntax and morphology. Both implicational universals hypotheses have been examined by the examples from cross-language in this chapter.Chapter6is the summary of the whole research. It summarizes key research contents, layers of the research structure, technological means, main innovation points, problems unsolved and points for further research. The most important conclusion in this research is that we have identified apposition as subject-predicate structure with invisible mark of "Shi (是)", this means apposition is subcategory of typical syntactic structures. Apposition is the result of grammaticalization of social needs to express the multi-dimensional of events in speech by the continuum, which has corresponding syntactic implicational universals and the interface implicational universals between syntax and morphology.