A Study On The "PP+VP" Phrase In Contemporary Chinese

Phrase is a fundamental issue for the syntax system. However, the comprehensive study on PP+VP phrase is so limited until now though it has been used frequently in contemporary Chinese. This thesis is mainly dedicated to give a systematic description and analysis on the construction of PP+VP phrase. The influence of PP and VP to this phrase construction has been explored and the semantic role together with a verb in PP+VP phrase has been investigated. To further understand the syntax or semantic relationship in PP+VP phrase, theoretical analysis with Case Grammar and Valence Grammar and Transformation Analysis have also been used.In Chapter 1, we first illustrate the motivation of this study with basic importance on the syntax system of contemporary Chinese and valuable reference to the Chinese language teaching for foreigners. Then the inner construction of prepositional phrase has been discussed in a systematic way and the syntax function of PP+VP phrase has been investigated in Chapter 2. According to"Contemporary Chinese Frequency Dictionary", the most frequently used prepositions have been classified and the following contents of those prepositions have been systematically described in relation to the grammar. In particular, we found that the prepositional object could be either a word or a phrase and then got a comprehensive understanding on the different array mode of PP phrases. In this thesis, the Case Grammar theory has also been used to analysis the semantics type of different prepositional phrases. An emphasis in Chapter 3 has been put on the construction law of PP+VP phrase. The investigation is in good agreement with previous reports confirming that the differences of PP will limit the selection for the composition of PP+VP phrase. On the other hand, our study also explores the influence of VP to PP+VP phrase according to different performance of verb in the phrase. To further understand the valuable study on PP+VP phrase, we also show some examples related to the Chinese teaching for foreigners.Combined with theoretical analysis, this contribution is dedicated to the comprehensive investigation of PP+VP phrase and offers valuable reference for the phrase study of contemporary Chinese and the Chinese language teaching for foreigners.