Applying "Small-triangle" Hypothesis To Investigate The Construction Of "Predicative+Dehuang"

"P dehuang" is an oral expression in Chinese mandarin which is commonly used to express an uncomfortable or unhappy feeling ( "P" is the abbreviation of "predicative" , represents the verbs and adjectives can come into it). Many people have noticed it is a special construction but no one has given a convincible explanation. Based on previous studies and directed by Xing Fuyi's "small-triangle" hypothesis, this thesis looked into "P dehuang" and made an overall description and interpretation."huang"has been defined as a degree complement or a state complement although it shows very different characters. The thesis analyzed those characters and found that all the specialties are all from one point, that " de " and "huang" have combined together tightly. "huang" is attached to "de" and its pronunciation changed due to the accessory status---its voice became softer and tone disappeared. "P dehuang" can be modified by a degree adverb, which makes "huang" different from other degree complements; "huang" describes a state but not the focus of a sentence so it's not a state complement; "P dehuang" is always used as one unit but it doesn't have the same grammatical characters as a word. It seems like belong to many collectivities but doesn't suit any one of them.According to that, we defined "huang" as a transitional form from a complement to an affix with "de". The affix in northeast dialect "-ting" is coagulated from "-dehuang" and it verifies this presumption.By tracing the origin and development of "P dehuang" , we discovered "huang" was a result complement in the beginning, which is still used occasionally like in "e dehuang le" , "ji dehuang le" , "shai dehuang le" . "huang" in this case doesn't lose its tone and is the focus of a sentence, it is accented and means its original meaning "fluster". Then the result meaning was becoming weaker and weaker, in Ming Dynasty it could be a degree complement, like "e huai le", "qi si le" don't mean "hungry to bad", "angry to die", only mean a high degree. After that it was still becoming weaker, even lost the degree meaning a little in Qing Dynasty, then the degree meaning totally disappeared in modern Chinese. Now it can only add a descriptive meaning and has nothing to do with degree, "e dehuang" is not more hungry than "hungry " , only give an extra description of an uncomfortable, unhappy feeling due to hungry.The uncomfortable, unhappy feeling "～dehuang" describes can be both physical and psychological, can both to oneself and to the outside world, so verbs and adjectives show these feelings can all come into it. And because of the derogatory and subjective senses implied by "-dehuang" , Feeling Verbs which are accord with these two senses come into it better than other words.We calculated all the words can come in "P dehuang" and found that although "huang" has no longer meant its original meaning "fluster" , it still tend to describe psychological feelings. To describe physical feelings is only an extension. After "-dehuang" changed in to "-ting" , it almost refuses all other words except Feeling Verbs and it mainly describes physical feelings. The reason that "P dehung" and "～ting" can both exist in northeast, is that they take on different responsibilities.