A Diachronic Study Of The Chinese Contracted Sentences With Connectives And The Contracting Mechanisms

This dissertation studies the Chinese contracted sentences with connectives. It, diachronically, explores the position, features and classifications of the sentences, describes their application in history, and analyzes their forming process, mechanism and motivation, by the method of multi authentication of language form, meaning, use and cognition. The paper focuses on the description and explanation of the contracting mechanisms of the Chinese contracted sentences with connectives, and they are semantic integration mechanism, syntactic simplification-and-combination mechanism, pragmatic compression-and-selection mechanism, among which the pragmatic compression-and-selection mechanism is the most influential and triggers the clauses to integrate into a contracted sentence. However, the cognitive explanation serves the best for the motivation of the sentences, as the principle of iconicity interprets the interactive operation of semantic integration mechanism and syntactic simplification-and-combination mechanism, as well as the evolving stages, constructing rules and existing value. Finally, the case study of the contracted sentence "爱(Ai)X就/不(Jiu/Bu)Y" counts to conclude the shaping, mechanism and motivation of the contracted sentences with connectives.The dissertation is divided into8chapters and the main content of each chapter is as follows.Chapter One is the introduction. It introduces the study object and method, outlines the previous research with comments on the problems, and states the significance and contents of the present study.Chapter Two explores the position, features and classifications of the Chinese contracted sentences with connectives. It’s argued that the contracted sentence is a part of Chinese clause syntagm sequences when examined from the perspective of clause integration. The features of the contracted sentences are determined mainly by their syntactic forms and semantic properties. And the contracted sentences are categorized into different types by different criteria such as the use of the sentence subject, the degree of integration, the logical-semantic relation of the composing clauses and the syntactic pattern of the sentence.Chapter Three describes the application and characteristics of the contracted sentences with connectives in all historical periods, based on the framework of the main semantic relation of the composing clauses and guided by the connectives in the sentence. Furthermore, it sums up the general features of both the Chinese contracted sentences and the connectives used in the sentences.Chapter Four analyzes the construction of the Chinese contracted sentences with connectives in terms of meaning---the semantic integration mechanism. The semantic relations are expounded from the relation among the clauses and among the main components of the sentence. It is believed that the concept of the Chinese contracted sentences with connectives is generated by two patterns:the double-scope network and the single-scope network. The emergent meaning of the integrated sentence is to protrude a closer and tighter logical-semantic relation.Chapter Five discusses the construction of the Chinese contracted sentences with connectives in terms of form---the syntactic simplification-and-combination mechanism, with the principle of iconicity to interpret the interactive operation of this mechanism and the semantic integration mechanism. The characteristics of the Chinese contracted sentences with connectives are tackled from the number of syllables, the omission of the subject, the class of speech of the connectives, the other components and even the mood of the sentence. The syntactic simplification-and-combination mechanism includes the simplification mechanism and combination mechanism, the former involving cache mechanism and condensed mechanism, and the latter having chunk forward mechanism, mood merged mechanism, efficient connectives mechanism and temporal sequence mechanism. Complexity iconicity and independence iconicity are the main motivations to produce contracted sentences in that relatively enough complexity and independence the involved clauses reach can promote the interactive operation of the semantic integration mechanism and the syntactic simplification-and-combination mechanism to integrate the clauses into a contracted sentence.Chapter Six probes the construction of the Chinese contracted sentences with connectives in terms of application---the pragmatic compression-and-selection mechanism. The value of the sentence is to present the subjectivity and intensify the mood. The contracted sentences with connectives are mainly found in informal materials like spoken or literacy discourses, especially in narration. The pragmatic compression-and-selection mechanism includes the least effort mechanism, the context adaptation mechanism and the information processing mechanism.Chapter Seven verifies and concludes the formation, mechanism and motivation of the contracted sentence with connectives by the case study of"爱(Ai)X就/不(Jiu/Bu)Y".Chapter Eight is the conclusion. It sums up the major points of the whole paper and states the limitation and the topic for the follow-up research.