Synchronic And Diachronic Study On "Biqi"

Based on plentiful and authentic corpus examples, taking"Biqi"and"Biqi"sentences as research objects, this paper tries to newly locate"Biqi"sentences in terms of subcategory and sentence types, to make an analysis on the grammaticalization course of"Biqi"from diachronic point and to give an explanation on its reasonableness, to synchronically analyze the usage rules of"Biqi"sentences and to examine the difference between"Biqi"sentences and"Bi"sentences on a comparative basis.The theories of linguistics we mainly used include Structuralistic Linguistic Theory, Three Planes Theory, Grammaticalization Theory, Focus Theory, Topic Theory, Markedness Theory, Theory of Cognitive Linguistics,Theory of Linguistic Universals and Typology and so on. Both synchronic and diachronic means are utilized in the research and the same emphasis is put on quantitative and qualitative investigation, phenomenal description and theoretical explanation, induction and deduction as well as comparison and analogy. The paper consists of about 80000 words, including 12 diagrams and 350 typical examples in order to present all round and detailed observation, description and explanation.In this paper, the general framework and the main points are as follows:Chapter One, it includes the origin and purpose, the methods and premises, and the main source of corpus examples.Chapter Two, it tries to newly locate"Biqi"sentences in terms of subcategory and sentence types. The author holds the idea that like"Bi"sentences,"Biqi"sentences are also"syntactic comparative sentences", but are mainly used in Inverse Comparison as well as Disparity Comparison.Chapter Three, it analyses the source of"Biqi". There are essential differences between"Biqi"and"Biqilai"although the latter is the origin of the former."Biqi"is a preposition;"Biqilai"is a phrase. And certainly, grammaticalization of"Biqi"is based on grammaticalization of"Bi". We can describe the grammaticalization course of"Biqi"as follows: (Two subjects combined + Biqilai + R→) Y+VP₂, X (+VP₁,) Bi + Qilai +R→X (+VP₁,) Yu +Y+Bi+Qilai+R→X(+VP₁,)+ Bi_{(动词)}+Qi+Y+Lai+R→X(+VP₁,)+Biqi_{(介词)}+Y(+Lai)+RChapter Four, Compared with ancient Chinese, the new forms such as"Biqi"being freely displaced to the beginning of the sentence,"Biqi……Laishuo/Laijiang/Eryan","Biq(i+VP)+Y, Ex+VP+X"and so on, which have come into being in modern Chinese, confirm the nature of the preposition"Biqi"further. There are a detailed analysis and interpretation from the relevant contents of the grammaticalization.Chapter Five, Based on the study of Three Planes Theory, we have revealed meticulously the phenomena and the rules of usage of"Biqi"sentences required in such respects as semantic selectiveness, pragmatic representation and syntactic structures of modern Chinese. So we conclude that Chinese considered as a topic-prominent and pragmatic-prominent language,"Biqi"stems from the topicalization of comparative objects (which is one of the pragmatic functions of the proposition) required by contextual coherence. And"Biqi"sentences perfectly supplement"Bi"sentences as the diversity of comparative results is required. Also we can find the explanation to considering"Biqi"as a topic preposition of Comparative Sentences in terms of Linguistic Universals and Typology. Meanwhile, to define"Biqi"rightly is beneficial to Chinese information processing as well as TCSL teaching practices and translatology.Chapter Six, we analyze the difference between"Biqi"sentences and"Bi"sentences comparatively. Although the former is not more diverse than the latter in the semantic expressions, there is synchronical and diachronic value to"Biqi"sentences.The final chapter is peroration in which there are some of the shortcomings of the paper and some issues that are not discussed and require further study.