The Grammaticalization Of Chinese V+le And English Have+V-ed: A Contrastive Study

Traditional linguistic idea was that language contains speech sound, vocabulary and grammar. However, someone put forward daringly an opinion that there is no grammar but grammaticalization. In general, grammaticalization refers to a phenomenon that content words change into function words. It is the 13th century that in China the concept was proposed called ShiCi XuHua at the earliest time. In the west, it is Meillet, one of the famous forerunners in the modern grammaticalization study, who brought forward the word "grammaticalisation" in 1912. However, there are several different implications between the Chinese and the western grammaticalization. The study of grammaticalization has become one of the hot topics in the linguistic field since the1970s. In the west, scholars make efforts to get specific examples from many different languages as datum support for their theoretical hypotheses, whereas Chinese linguists pay more attention to the grammaticalization process of concrete or specific language phenomena in Chinese. It is difficult to find at home and abroad the systematic research on the processes of grammaticalization of certain grammatical categories and contrastive studies of the processes of grammaticalization of the same grammatical category in different languages. The studies which will be made in this paper can fill the blank. The thesis makes a concrete statement of the grammaticalization processes of Chinese V+le construction and English have+V-ed construction respectively in order to lay a base for the following contrastive analyses. We will search for the motive of the grammaticalization from degree of grammaticalization, loss of inflections, competition and word order aspects. Moreover, we are to explore the differences and similarities between the two constructions and plumb of the motive and mechanism of the language development.This paper includes six chapters. Chapter 1 Introduction introduces the history of grammaticalization and development and research fruits in Chinese and the aim and significance of this study made in this paper. Chapter 2 Literature Review deals with some theoretical issues about grammaticalization including the background, the definition, principles and main mechanisms as well as the previous studies made by forerunners. Chapter 3 Grammaticalization of Chinese "le" surveys the process of the grammaticalization of Chinese V+le construction period by period. Chapter 4 Grammaticalization of have+V-ed Construction surveys the process of the grammaticalization of English have+V-ed construction period by period. Chapter 5 is the body of the present paper. The reanalysis and analogy play important roles in the development from the infancy to the maturity of the two constructions. The author will compare with the two constructions from degree of grammaticalization, loss of inflections, competition and word order four aspects. Chapter 6 draws a conclusion that there exists differences and similarities between the two constructions at the same time proves the nature of language.The contrastive study of the perfect grammaticalization process in Chinese and English will find out differences and similarities between the two constructions in their processes then explore the motive that pushes the language development.