A Study Of Word-class Marking For Suffix "子" From The Perspective Of Grammaticalization Theory

The study of suffix"子"is one of the key targets for linguistic researches. Chinese suffix"子"possesses the upmost priority in the researches of suffixes among linguists. Scholars have made multi-dimensional researches over suffix"子"in terms of its identification, semantics and etymology, yielding remarkable achievements. However, disagreements spark over the identification of suffix"子". Previous researches fail to be methodologically underpinned by authoritative and systematic data and further exploration is still needed for syntactic functions. Based on Grammaticalization Theory and the Lexicon of Common Words in Contemporary Chinese published by the National Language Committee of China in 2008, this thesis attempts to explore the essence and properties of word-class marking for suffix"子"and the hidden mechanisms through the qualitative-centered and quantitative-complemented analysis.It is found in the study that: (1) Suffix"子"is one of the varieties of conceptual container"子". Word form"子"with strong conceptual elasticity, in some sense, is a conceptual container for many heterogeneous and isomorphic varieties such as content word"子", quasi-suffix"子", and suffix"子"; (2) Word-class marking of suffix"子"concretely reflects interaction of three subset clines of grammaticality displaying gradience and variation, which is modulated by such mechanisms as phonological attrition, semantic bleaching and morphosyntactic reanalysis; (3) Word-class marking of suffix"子"is the functional extension of grammatical features rooted in content word"子", that is to say, the word classes, the concomitant effects on the elements to which suffix"子"is attached, the properties in word-class marking of suffix"子"are restricted and affected by the intrinsic characteristics of content word"子"through the operation of grammaticalization, which prints the trace of a continuum clearly and vividly.Owing to its productive capability and high frequency in language use, suffix"子"is claimed as a typical example in the micro-system of Chinese affixes. To undertake a micro-analysis from the syntactic perspective can not only provide some explaining motivations and help freshmen and learners who study Chinese as the second language to acquire the internal rules of word formation and the peculiar pragmatic features but also supply some inspiring theoretical clues for the related studies of other Chinese suffixes. In a word, researches on suffix"子"are both theoretically and practically significant.