A Study On The Consolidation Of Temporary"Noun+Noun" Four-Character Phrases

This thesis aims to address the research question of how and in what circumstances a temporary "noun+noun" four character phrase evolves into a "solidified" or set four character phrase in the Chinese language. By collecting data from literary corpus, the thesis describes and examines the characteristics of morphology and semantics of the "noun+noun" four-character phrases and the relationship between temporary phrases and set phrases. By combining a static analysis of literary corpus with a dynamic analysis of their characteristics the thesis reveals the consolidating process of how the "noun+noun" four-character phrases change into set phrases.There are five chapters in the thesis. The first chapter is an introduction. It examines the category and characteristics of four-character phrases, and introduces the research topic, reviewing the conceptual framework and introduces methodology. The second chapter is a dynamic analysis of "noun+noun" four-character temporary phrases. The main goal of the second chapter is the dynamic analysis of "noun+noun" four-character temporary phrase. Firstly, it introduces the selection of corpus, including the concept of establishing database, corpus collection and processing, and output methods. Secondly it examines the use, frequency, match, and distribution of the four-character phrases. Thirdly, this chapter examines the characteristics, use, and consolidation of these phrases. Finally, by isolating the consolidation conditional parameters it demonstrates the dynamic process of change.The third chapter is a static analysis of "noun+noun" four-character temporary phrases and does so by adjusting and elaborating on the four-character phrases in the "Modern Chinese Dictionary"(6th edition). The fourth chapter is an analysis of four-character set phrases. It analyses the morphological structure, syntactic function, word attributes, and semantic motivation of set phrases. Then it analyses and examines the consolidation conditional parameters for set phrases. The fifth chapter is a conclusion which sums up the research and points out areas of future research.This thesis aims to make two main contributions to knowledge in the field. First, this research makes a methodological contribution by combining a static analysis with a dynamic analysis.. This combination of methods not only uses selection of corpus to analyze five aspects, i.e., morphological, structural, syntactic function, word attributes, and semantic motivation of four character phrases, but also provides an analysis to the "noun+noun" four-character set phrases in the "Modern Chinese Dictionary"(6th edition). The Second main contribution of the thesis is the description, analysis and demonstration of how and in what circumstances temporary four-character phrases evolve into set phrases in the Chinese language.