A Study On The Grammaticalization Of The Potential Noun Suffix Zu

The paper focus on usage of Zu in different historical stages, with the literature works as its clue.To ensure the paper's scientificity and reliability, the author searched plenty of corpus dating from the Pre-Qin Period to the end of Qing dynasty and to the modern times.She conducts a careful description,analysis and induction of Zu, finds out its sequence of grammaticalization, and probes into the reasons and mechanism of grammaticalization.Chapter one introduces the topic in question,the current study,the corpus the author uses and the theories and methods she adopts.In chapter two,chapter three and chapter four,the author studies the usage of Zu in different times.By analyzing the corpus, the author notices that Wei-jin dynasties and South-north dynasties have played a significant role in the grammaticalization of Zu.Chapter five carefully analyzes the reasons and mechanism of grammaticalization. The paper holds the opinion that the newly appeared phenomena and sufficient pragmatics conditions as well as the public's desire to be unique and concise propels the grammaticalization of Zu.In addition, reanalysis,absorption of context,generalization,metaphor and inference respectively play an important part in different stages of the grammaticalization,leading the meaning of Zu to evolve into "a group of people with commom behaviours or interests".The last chapter declares that the family of X Zu need standardizing under the guidance of principle of economy and explicit meaning.What's more,in the last part,it summarizes the paper as a whole.