The Study Of Postpositions In Chinese From The Perspective Of Language Contact

According to the theory of Typology of Greenberg,the adposition is an important reference item in word order Typology.Generally,the SVO languages intend to be harmonious with the prepositions,and the SOV languages are harmonious with the postpositions.While,Chinese as a SVO language has various types of adposition including preposition,postposition,and circumpositions.This phenomenon has been called as "rare samples".And in terms of it,the OV order in the Chinese dialect has been regarded as "the wonders of Typology" by the linguistic scholars in the fields of Typology study.At present,the formation and development of circumposition words in Chinese have always been attracting the attention of linguistic scholars in the field of grammaticalization and typology.However,the exploring of postposition word in Chinese is comparatively insufficient.This dissertation aims to study the origin and evolution of Chinese postpositions from the perspective of language contact,especially considering the influence of SOV languages' influence on Chinese circumposition word,meanwhile summarized the internal changes patterns and contactive-induced change patterns of the postposition.This dissertation is divided into three parts,including 9 chapters in all.The first part includes the 1st and the 2nd chapters.The first chapter clarifies the research objects,and explains the related concept categories,also the source of the corpus and the method of investigation.In the second chapter,we mainly analyze the reason of the existence of postposition from two aspects of internal factors and external factors of Chinese language system,at the same time,putting forward the criterion of language contact according to language contact theory and typology theory.The second part of this dissertation is from the 3rd to the 7th chapters.In this part,there are five sections discussed and divided into two categories.The first category of postpositions,which is from the 3rd chapter to the 5th chapter,includes the structure of "lai V(? V)","yi ban(??)",and "yi lu/yi tong/yi dao(??/??/??)”.These three kinds of postpositions have the basis of frame structure in Chinese grammar system,while language contact propel them change from circumpositions to postposition.In the 3rd chapter,we take "lai shuo(??)","lai kan(??)",and "lai jiang(??)",those "lai +verb" structure as the study objects,and discusses the grammaticalization process of "Lai+V" from the cross-structural phrase to the postposition.Furthermore,in the early 20th century,Europeanization of Chinese vernacular grammar formation period,English and Japanese grammar compel"? V" form a new circumposition structure,which finally played an vital role in the formation of the postposition"? V".In the 4th chapter,we takes the analogy postposition "yi ban(??)" as the research object,starting from analyzing the process of " yi ban(??)" from a quantitative phrase to adverb,then to being a analogy postposition.The reason of the formation of position "yi ban(??)" can due to both internal factors and the external factors,considering that Chinese had been contacted with foreign language and culture in history.In Chinese medieval times,the incoming Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures influenced "yi ban(??)" and promoted the formation of circumposition structure which is combining "yi ban(??)" with prepositions;In Yuan Dynasty,the contact of Chinese and Mongolian has led "yi ban(??)" to separate from circumposition,and become a dependent postposition.The research object of 5th chapter is "yi lu(??)","yi tong(??)" and "yi dao(??)".What is in the first place in this chapter is the analysis of diachronic process of "?X",from the cross-structure phrase to the adverb,and then from the adverb to the postposition."yi lu(??)","yi tong(??)" and "yi dao(??)" experienced lexicalization of "phrase structure>lexical constituent"from the Qin dynasty to the Song and Yuan Dynasties.There was also a transformation from the rear part of the frame structure to the postposition from the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.Taking the special historical background and language environment of Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty as mainly factors,and referring the important documents and literal translations of Mongolian and Manchu language,it is reasonable to infer that the influence of SOV languages has promoted "? X"structures to be the postpositions.The second category of postpositions discussed includes the 6th chapter and the 7th chapter.The content of this part is the research of locatives,"li(?)" and "shang(?)".Both of these two locative words completed their transition to postposition in Chinese internal grammar system,while language contact with certain minority languages,as an external factor,has propelled them change from postpositions into case markers.Specifically,the 6th chapter of this dissertation will summarize the evolution process of the mandarin Chinese post-locative "li(?)" from the ordinary noun to the noun of locality,and then to the postposition.At the same time,based on the result of language survey,analyzing and studying the multi-functional auxiliary words "li(?)"in the dialect of Henan province and Yunnan-Guizhou region,which is probably developing from noun locality "li(?)".Then,this chapter also focuses on the influence of Mongolian Chinese on the modern Chinese and Chinese dialects,especially the influence of special usage of case marker"li(?)" in the translated documents of the Yuan Dynasty.From the perspective of diachronic and language contact,this paper summarizes the evolutionary path of the multi direction of grammaticalization of the post-locative "li(?)".In the 7th chapter,we will sort out and summarize the grammaticalization process of modern Chinese locative words "Shang(?)" from noun to post-locatives.At the same time,based on the materials of language survey,this chapter will present the special function of "Shang(?)" being used as a case marker in the Yunnan dialect.According to "Shang(?)" in the translated documents in Yuan dynasty,functioned as locative,patientive,and dative,it is reasonable to consider that the special function of "shang(?)" being used as a case maker in the dialect of Sichuan-Yunnan areas inherited from Mongolian in Yuan Dynasty.Similarly,from the perspective of language contact and Typology,the impact of the minority languages in this area is also an important factor in the formation of "Shang(?)" being a dative case.The 8th chapter and the 9th chapter are the third part of this dissertation.The 8th chapter focuses on the analysis of general mechanism of the postpositions' formation process in the perspective of language contact theory,by combining the universal mechanisms of sentence blending,analogy and reanalysis with the grammatical replication of rearranging and narrowing.The 9th chapter is the conclusion,which presents a general statement for the dissertation by summarizing the main conclusions,shortcomings and innovations of this study.