Studies On The Function And Cognition Of The Compound With The Meaning Inclined To One Word

This paper investigates a special phenomenon of language which exists in Chinese—compound with the meaning inclined to one word. The compound with the meaning inclined to one word described in this article are a kind of two-tone compounds. These words are formed by two morphemes; the meaning of one morpheme is the same as the meaning of the compounds. And the other morpheme has no meaning, only playing a role of foil. The formation and development of compound with the meaning inclined to one word relate closely to the cognitive psychology of human being. Their trajectory of evolution fully reflects the influence that cognition puts on human language. Through the investigation of synchronic situation and diachronic evolvement of compound with the meaning inclined to one word, this paper reveals the cognitive reasons, the mechanism of evolution and the intrinsic motivation.This paper is divided into three chapters.ChapterⅠ, "the existing research and problems". Pointed out that the existing concept of compound with the meaning inclined to one word should refer to the compound words phenomenon, including Compound Phrases and words. In this paper constitutes a partial meaning of the situation and understanding the mechanism, and explore the lexicalization of Compound Phrases and grammaticalization of compound with the meaning inclined to one word. The inadequacy of existing research is unable to distinguish which is primary between these reasons of compound words phenomenon ,and can not correspond the phenomenon with the reason. In addition ,some situation also can not give a reasonable explanation.ChapterⅡ, "the function and cognitive mechanism of the formation and comprehension of compound with the meaning inclined to one word". I make a quantitative statistic about the compound words phenomenon, which makes out that the quantity of compound with the meaning inclined to one word is less, and that the difficulty of forming words is great, and that the compounds are less used than the non-compounds in the practical application. All these are because that this phenomenon is neither economic nor similar, and it violates the general principles of language structure, and it is a phenomenon of strong marker. The motivation of this phenomenon is only because it can solve some specific problems of communication or according to the accidengtity of the change of language. From this point, this paper points out that the taboo and the prominence of communicational intention is the most primary among all the reasons that have been investigated, and the factor of rhythm is subordinate. The nature of cognitive mechanism is a kind of metonymy of special symbols, that is, the whole symbol metonyms its salient part. There are some common trends in metonymy. This paper attempts to make out the regulation of compounds by using those trends.ChapterⅢ, "the formation and development of Compound words." I make a diachronic study about some compound with the meaning inclined to one word to explain the three regulations of the lexicalization of them: First, Morpheme+ Morpheme = The compound with the meaning inclined to one word; Morpheme +Morpheme= Phrases→clined to one or another→The compound with the meaning inclined to one word; Morpheme +Morpheme= Phrases→The compound with the meaning inclined to one word. Through the specific statistical quantity, I further conclude that the constraint factor is word frequency. Secondly, by using the examples and analysis, I explain the important function of metonymy and metaphor in the process of grammaticalization.