A Comparative Study Of Xieyin In Chinese And English From The Perspective Of Cognition

As a prevalent language phenomenon, xieyin(谐音),especially xieyin in Chinese, has drawn more and more attention from scholars. There is no denying that the achievements made by previous researches provide a solid basis for the present study. However, limitations still exist in these researches. First of all, most former studies mainly focus on the superficial traits of xieyin expressions in a static way. That is to say, there is a lack of dynamic studies of xieyin, as well as a shortage of studies probing into the internal mechanisms of the generation and interpretation of xieyin. Also, among the limited comparative studies of xieyin in Chinese and English, few of them have conducted in a systematic and all-round way. Taking all these factors into consideration, the present dissertation purports to carry out a dynamic and systematic comparative study of xieyin in both Chinese and English, mainly proceeding from comparisons of their external features and functions to their internal generation and interpretation mechanisms on the basis of the Autonomy-Dependency Analysis Framework proposed by Xu Shenghuan (徐盛桓2007a).With regard to the external features and functions of xieyin, a full comparison is mainly conducted from four aspects, namely, the definition, classification, sources and functions. The Chinese term xieyin is traditionally regarded as the counterpart of the English notion "homophony". However, through a close observation of their definitions, we find that they are by no means equivalent. Xieyin in Chinese denotes the dynamic use of words identical or similar in sound, while English homophony is static description of words identical in sound, to put it another way, homophony is only potential xieyin in language and only when it is put into actual use can it become xieyin expressions. What's more, besides homophones, xieyin also includes the actual use of near-homophones. For the validity of the thesis, as well as the convenience of discussion, we work out a new working definition of xieyin in both Chinese and English and define it as "the language phenomenon resulting from intentional uses of words or phrases identical or similar in sound but different in meaning for the purpose of achieving certain special effect in language use". This is also why we coin the term xieyin and use it to denote the actual use of homophones and near-homophones in both Chinese and English language.The new definition indicates that the use of xieyin always involves two words or phrases hinged by phonetic similarity. The original word is called base expression, with which the sound identical or similar is xieyin expression, and the hinge of a xieyin alignment can be perfect homonyms, homophones and near-homophones. In terms of the appearance of base expression and xieyin expression in utterances, this thesis divides xieyin into explicit xieyin and implicit xieyin. If both of the base expression and the xieyin expression appear, it is explicit; otherwise, it is implicit.As to the sources of xieyin, the abundance of xieyin words is considered as the linguistic basis of the prosperity of xieyin, which makes xieyin in Chinese and English share the following four common sources:phonetic convergence, semantic divergence, foreign influence and shortening. Still, the Chinese input system serves as peculiar source for xieyin in Chinese, while the inflectional changes provide a peculiar source for xieyin in English.Then the functions of xieyin is mainly compared from three aspects:the first one is the rhetorical function, in which paronomasia and xieyin parody are analyzed in detail; the second one is the word formational function, in which we have discussed the two ways of xieyin in enriching the vocabulary of both Chinese and English, that is, creating new words and causing semantic change of words; the last one is the cultural function, in which we find that xieyin in Chinese culture is mainly used to seek auspicious symbols and to avoid the inauspicious ones while in English culture it is mainly created to replace taboos in daily life and religion.These comparisons of the external features of xieyin not only reveal the great similarities and differences between xieyin in Chinese and English, but also provide a foundation for exploring its internal generation and interpretation mechanisms. Based on the Autonomy-Dependency Analysis Framework put forward by Xu Shenghuan (2007a) and the large amount of analysis of the generation and interpretation processes of xieyin, this dissertation proposes a unified framework for the generation and interpretation of xieyin in both Chinese and English. Generally speaking, the generation process of xieyin can be summarized as:1) The generation of xieyin expression is triggered by the speaker's intentionality, which is composed by intentional content and intentional attitude. 2) The intentional content serves as the base expression, which is autonomous. Under the guidance of intentional attitude, the speaker derives its corresponding dependent element, that is, the xieyin expression, from the base expression through the manipulation of proximity/similarity relation.3) The base expression dominates the xieyin expression and transmits its own intentionality, structure, meaning, usage, etc., to xieyin expression by nipping-along.4) The xieyin expression can be retrieved to the speaker's intentionality when necessary, which is the way listeners use to interpret the xieyin alignment.As the opposite process of utterance understanding, the interpretation process of xieyin is concluded as:1) The starting point of interpretation of xieyin alignments is the xieyin expression.2) With the help of logical reasoning, background information as well as the context, the xieyin expression is turned into stereotypical relations which are characterized by similarity/proximity.3) Then in the listener's mind, he will identify and form the most compatible correspondence, that is, the base expression, in the specific context by means of the SR(s).4) At last, the listener achieves interpretation of the xieyin expression in terms of the specific context of SR(s), usually by means of complementation and/or elucidation of the nipping-along effect of the base expression.Above all, we can draw the conclusion that xieyin in Chinese and English bears much more similarities than differences. From the comparison of their external features to their internal mechanisms, we find that they are highly consistent with each other in their internal generation and interpretation mechanisms though they share some differences outwardly.