A Comparative Study On The Manner And Basis Preposition In Modern Chinese

The manner and basis preposition(MBP) is a smaller category of preposition which classified by its semantic function. The manner and basis preposition has a special status and significance in the entire system of preposition in the Modern Chinese. Today Chinese relevant theoretical researches still have many blanks and deficiencies. This paper, through a combination of a variety of research theories and methods, will take a systematic observation and comparison on the MBP in Modern Chinese from syntax, semantics, pragmatics and the usage.There are five sections in this paper: Section I investigates the MBP as a whole, consists of the criterions of classifying, fundamental distinguishing features, distribution places, and the usage frequency and so on. Moreover, it analyses whether there could be "不" at the head of the sentence. Section II investigates the syntax function and the structure characteristics of MBP in Modern Chinese. The total distribution of MBP in the sentence structure was also investigated. Section III investigates and contrasts the semantic category selectional restrictions about the objects of MBP, and the semantic category selectional restrictions of the predicate verbs. Section IV contrasts topic-marked function, focus-appeared function, joins in the context function, and the situation as the parenthesis. In this section, the styles of each preposition was also compared with the statistical analysis. Section V is the analysis about the disappearing and appearing situation of MBP in the application, it includes: "按照+NP","通过+NP/VP","凭着+NP/AP","随着+NP/VP".