A Study On Non-Word Morpheme In Contemporary Chinese

Non-word morpheme is an impotant part of morpheme. From the point of view of diachronic liguistics, most of the non-word morpheme in contemporary chinese are the monosyllabic words in ancient chinese. The non-word morpheme still have the definite meanings, but with the transmutation of language, the non-word morpheme can not be a word. Its function is only embodied in word-formation.In this paper, we think that the definition of the non-word morpheme is based on the definition of the morpheme. First, we hold that"-r'and the residual elemet is morpheme. Then ,we confirm that the residual-element morpheme and the morpheme that can be a word just only with the"-r"is non-word morpheme.If we want to define the non-word morpheme, we not only need to think about it as a whole, but also to consider the difference of function in different sememe. Thinking about the morpheme as a whole, the strict definition of the non-word morpheme is the morpheme which can not be a word in its all sememe.The grammar classification of the non-word morpheme is to remain as the foucs of the argument between the scolars. In this paper, we think that the combination of the morpheme is not arbitrary, it has a definite stuctural relation which is also the grammar relation. The combination of the morpheme also can make the grammar fuction which we can use to be a basis of the grammar classification of the non-word morpheme. In the actual procees of the grammar classification, we can also use the meaning as a reference, or we can determine the grammar classification according to the ancient chinese monosyllable word-class.After accomplishment of the definition and classification of the non-word morpheme, we select 1007 common non-word morpheme from 2500 common characters, and then we have a statistics of the grammar classification and the ability of the word-formation of these common non-word morpheme. From this, we get some quantative attribute of the non-word morpheme.At last ,we discuss the reason and the conditon of conditonally being a word in the non-word morpheme.