A Semantic Analysis On The Adverb"Zai"and The Partical"Zhe(·zhe)"

The adverb "Zai"and the partical "Zhe"are two important empty words in the Modern Common Chinese. Many valuable conclusions about them have been gotten by some studiers. However, what are the grammatical meaning of "Zai"and "Zhe"?how to use them? Nobody can give a perfect answer up to date. One of the important reasons for this phenomenon is that studiers hardly studied the two words "Zai"and "Zhe"together. So, this thesis tries to do that to find the semantic features of "Zai"and "Zhe"by comparing the two words. On this basis, we try to define the grammatical meanings of the two words and discuss the same and different aspects between the grammatical meanings and usages of "Zai"and "Zhe". This thesis includes four parts. The first part is foreword. This part introduces the field of this paper, study method, study value and so on. At the end of this part, we look back the relative study before. The second part is "the semantic analysis on 'Zai'and 'Zhe'". In this part, we firstly analyze the study about the grammatical meaning of "Zai"and "Zhe"made by people before, then suggest that:on the one hand , there is the same semantic feature of "[lasting]", on the other hand , there are the opposite semantic features of "[+thing-judgement]:[+state-quality]"and "[+durative]:[+continuous]"between "Zai"and "Zhe"by many analysis. On this basis, this paper believes that we can define the grammatical meaning of the word "Zai"as "a thing is in a durative state",define "Zhe"as "the continuity of a state". The third part is "the form analysis decided by semantic feature of 'Zai'and 'Zhe'". Relating the semantic feature of "Zai"and "Zhe",this part tries to discuss the same and different aspects between the usages of "Zai"and "Zhe". This part argues that ,on the one hand, some of the usage of "Zai"and "Zhe"are alike because of the common semantic feature of [+lasting]; on the other hand, there are the pragmatic opposition of "discourse self-complete : discourse non-self-complete"and "comparative foreground:background"between "Zai"and "Zhe"because of the two opposite semantic features existed between them. The end part is "remain discussion". This part firstly discusses the changeable grammatical meaning of "Zai"and "Zhe"from the view of history, then uses our conclusions to analyze the relative errors made by foreign students. The creation of this thesis lies in: (1),this thesis argues that the orientation of "Zai"is not the verb or adjective but the subject and predicate; the grammatical meaning of "Zhe"is embodied in the phrase of "V+Zhe"or "A+Zhe". Depending on this main ideal, this thesis exhaustively studies the semantic features of the verb, adjective, verbal phrase and adjectival phrase combined with "Zai"while attentively investigates the semantic features of the structure of "V+Zhe"and "A+Zhe". (2),on the base of one by one analysis , this thesis suggests that the same semantic feature is "[lasting]", the opposite semantic features are "[+thing-judgement]:[+state-quality]"and "[+durative]:[+continuous]"between "Zai"and "Zhe".(3),this thesis analyses the form analysis decided by semantic feature of "Zai"and "Zhe", and then believes that there are not only the same but also different aspects between their linguistic expression.