An Elementary Research Into The Rule Of Word-formation Of "者"-A Suffix In Modern Chinese

"者" in modern Chinese can be used as a suffix, such as" 作者, and it can also be used as an auxiliary to signify something, such as "前者".The suffix "者"can be adhered to a etymon to form a new word, denoting "××的人", for example, "投资者" and "爱国者" etc. However, not all etyma can do this, for instance, words like "吃者", "书者" and "疯者" and so on are not acceptable. This thesis is to make out the qualifications put on the etyma when adhered to "者", that is, the rule of word-formation of the suffix "者".In ancient Chinese, "者"had various usages and appeared to be very complicated. Scholars hold different opinions towards the grammatical function of the"者 "in such phrases as "长者"and "食马者"etc. Their understandings fall into three groups: a pronoun, an auxiliary and a suffix. In our view, "者" in such phrases is neither pronoun nor auxiliary, instead it is a termination, or a suffix, and it is the direct source of the suffix "者" in modern Chinese."者"is to transfer reference in terms of its semantic function. What it refers to is not the action itself but the agent of the action or the copulative agent of a state.In terms of grammatical functions, it is to form new words by adding the semantic meaning of what kind of person it is. The two functions are supposed to be realized simultaneously; otherwise, it would not work. All these distinguish it from the pronoun "者" (whose grammatical and lexicalfunctions are determined by the reference it refers to) and the auxiliary one (which only denotes grammatical meaning)."#"in modern Chinese can also be attached to a phrase to form a new one. In this way, it also should be classified as a suffix, for the meaning of the new phrase is complete and definite. What it signifies is one entity, which cannot be separated.The number of syllables does not have much to do with the word-formation of the suffix "#". Monosyllables, disyllables, and even complex phrases can all form new words when attached to "#". However, since monosyllables do not dominate in modern Chinese, they seldom form new words together with "^ ".The phrases made of "#"and monosyllables in present use are all left over from ancient Chinese, such as "ffc#" and "i|j#", which are comparatively fixed and assume a high capacity in lexicalization.In terms of word class, "#" usually forms new words together with nouns, verbs and adjectives, on the contrary, it seldom does so with such word classes like differential, adverbials, prepositions, conjunctions, exclamation, auxiliaries and modal, onomatopoetic and location words, etc.Among the nouns, the vocational and ideological ones work more active in forming new words with "#", which strongly proves that "#" is a suffix instead of an auxiliary (such as "fr\J").The semantic features of words is also one of the important qualifications in forming new words with the suffix "#".In the aspect of verbs, they must be person-narrative ones. The more active and independent the verb is, the more easier it is to be attached to "#". Similarly, the more definite agent the verb assumes, the higher possibility it is to form new words with "#". In terms of adjectives, they also must describe persons. Among them, the more social the adjective is, the easier it will be to form new words with "#". And also those with a more definite copulative agent will have a high capacity to do so. When describing the features of verbs and adjectives, we here introduce the two terms "semantic features" and "semantic allocation".For example, "#flJP": Semantic features [+person] [+ action][+independence]; Semantic allocation {agent and recipient).Some etyma of "#" phrases can also be adhered to "^C" and "jq", such as "$1^^" and "$lft^"; "!￡##" and "MM". But more of them are not exchangeable, for example, we cannot say "3t-^#", but "Jt'^'^C" is all right; There is no "ftiKi^", but "ff^w" is acceptable. Finally, we find that "XX ig-" generally refers to the agent of a temporary or individual action, such as "SJW#".While "XX |C' or "X X $" usually refers to the agent of vocational actions, such as "Jinlm" and "ffSSiC, which emphasize the work divisions and different classes in a group.In general, those words with a strong colloquial color cannot form "XX ;#", that is because "#" is quite formal and especially used in written style, such as there is no "ftd^qf ",but "#t9S#" is acceptable.