The Functional Motivations Of The Neutralization Of The Disyllabl Neutral-tone Words

Disyllable neutral-tone words usually be divided into two groups: regular neutral-tone words and habitual neutral-tone words. This article targets to explore the functional motivations of the neutralization of the tone, based on the language materials contained in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (shortened as Contemporary Chinese in the following).This thesis consists of six sections.The first section, introduction. This section introduces comprehensively the existed researches, and points out that their shortcomings is caused by their disability to predict neutral tone words' distribution more concretly. The cause is that the existed ones just came up with the motivation of the neutralization which is global and ignored the unearth of neutralization's concrete conditions.The second section, neutral-tone words' characters. Disyllable neutral-tone words have a tighter form union, correspondingly, their meaning's conformity is higher compared with isomorphtic phrases, homonym words or related vocabularies.The third section, The functional motivations of the neutralization of the tone. As the target of the neutralization is to differentiate isomorphtic phrases, homonym words or related vocabularies, we need to start from their concrete environment to observe neutral-tone words' formation. The neutralization of Permian-tone words in the regular neutral-tone words are mainly resulted by pronouncing-sensor system, The components of grammaticalizaition mainly determined by their position, The components which attached to the former are prior to be neutralized. Habitual neutral-tone words is a prototype category. Contrast to the isomorphtic words and phrases, habitual neutral-tone words are higher in frequence, oritation and semantics integregation's degree, but the motivations factors are all partial, not absolute. Not every neutral-tone word is caused by these three factors, however, compared with relative words and phrases, the more above motivation it has, the more possible it will be neutralized. So, in a degree, habitual neutral-tone words is predictable.The forth section, vations of the neutralization of the disyllable neutral-tone words in Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (the 5th ediction). By observing the neutral-tone words, we further demonstate that: firstly, regular neutral-tone words are not totally predictable, the quasi-affixes' neutralization should also be regarded as a prototype category; secondly, habitual neutral-tone words also have general regulations.The fifth section, neutral-tone words' development trends and specifications. This section indicates neutral-tone words are both practical and iconicity, so they should appear vastly. At present, its decline in mandarin is mainly caused by the neutral-tone words themselves' unstability, the influence of the dialect or other languages and the influence of Chinese internationnalization. Due to neutral-tone words' unstability, we should consider more of the problems exised in Contemporary Chinese Dictionary to standardize our language.The fifth section, conclusion. Summary of the full text.