The Research Of Modern Light Tone Chinese Charaters And Interrelated Issues

Being one of the important phenomena of Chinese language speech sounds, light tone is a significant functional construction unit, and also an indispensable means of differentiating reference. The research on light tone was started in the 1920's, when Mr. Zhao Yuanren put forward the concept of "light tone" in his On Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1922). Since then light tone has been drawing more and more attention in the academic circles, and nowadays it has become a focus in Chinese language speech sounds study. This thesis carries on the research of related issues of light tone from the angles of formation mechanism, function, syntax and semantic meaning, etc. We believe that it is helpful both to the development of Chinese grammar and to standardizing language and teaching.Chapter 1 is an introduction part. It introduces the purpose and meaning of the thesis, the current situation of the research on modern light tone Chinese characters. By working on this investigation, we have found that there are still some breakthroughs we can make in this research. This part also includes the theories and methods of the research, and the sources of language materials. The introduction will lead us to a better understanding of modern light tone Chinese characters.Chapter 2 is a statistics analysis of modern light tone Chinese characters. We completed a thorough analysis and distinction by analyzing the number, types, current situation of construction and features of light tone Chinese characters in Modern Chinese Dictionary (5th version, 2005). It gives us a perceptual knowledge of modern light tone Chinese characters and a preparation of the research.Chapter 3 is an investigation of asymmetry in the affixes of modern light tone Chinese characters. It shows a statistics on the true affixes and affixoids in modern light tone Chinese characters, elaborates that affixes are an inevitable outcome of grammaticalization, discusses the adhering feature of postpositive speech sound unit, and indicates its universality. In the description and discussion of the asymmetry of modern light tone Chinese characters, both a large amount of language materials and the combination of description and explanation are adopted.Chapter 4 first indicates that the nature of light tone is a feature of meter and rhyme. Based on the theory of union, the effect of the stress mode, and the outcome of searching thoroughly in Modern Chinese Dictionary (5th version, 2005), it classifies the affixes of modern light tone Chinese characters by distinction of meaning and of function with a great number of examples. The distinctive function of the affixes of modern light tone Chinese characters has been discussed by analyzing the universality of the effect of union.Chapter 5 is focused on the feature of light tone. First it describes the development of modern Chinese disyllabic words with reasons, and studies the methods of phonetic reduction (reduction of tone pitch, omission of vowels, causing augmentation) and also the semantic grammaticalization (the amount of information and level of grammaticalization) in modern Chinese disyllabic words with light tone.Chapter 6 lists the function words of modern Chinese and their features, discusses the mechanism of neutralizing of the function words of modern Chinese in the way of diachrony and synchrony, and studies Chinese disyllabification on the concept of"foot"in prosody.Chapter 7 is a conclusion of the thesis on its value of research. We hope that our study is useful both to the development of Chinese grammar and to standardizing language and teaching.