A Study On "Preposition+Object" Compound Words In Chinese

Concerning the whole languages system, the changes to the phonetics, the syntax, and the lexicology are the most manifest and prompt, and Chinese is absolutely no exception .From thousands of years ago the single syllable word occupying the dominant position to now the double syllable word widely being used; from the relatively poor quantities of words to the considerably pioneering words , the lexicology has always been the focus of attention.The"preposition + o"compound words being selected as the title of this paper has not been specially and systematically researched in past a great many grammatical works .The paper holds that the existence of the"preposition + o"compound words is certainly without controversy. The arrangement rules of Chinese compound approach the syntax's arrangement rules all the time and the"preposition + o"also belongs to one of them , meanwhile, such as the s + predicate , the v + object , and the v + complement , they already been known . For this reason, we have no doubts that the"preposition + o"is also one type of potential words formation. With the developing trend of the two syllables words and some parts of the preposition and the object often appearing together, the relationship between the preposition and the object become increasingly intimate. This kind of the relationship not only respectively let the meaning of the preposition and the object subtly changed, but also urge them get much more dependent on each other .If their each influence breaks through the boundary about them, the original"preposition + o"phrase will lexicalize into the"preposition + o"compound words .Though the compound words formed through the way above are not in the majority, the existence of them will further verify the diversity of Chinese word-formation. Based on the previous researches, this paper comes up with three premises of binding the formation of"preposition + o"compound words, and in the meantime, tries to use five criteria to decide the differences and similarities between"preposition + o"phrases and"preposition + o"compound words. After analyzing"preposition + o"compound words out of"preposition + o"phrases, the paper makes a detailed and systematic study of the source of"preposition + o"compound words diachronically . It has been found that the methods used to lexicalize"preposition + o"phrases into"preposition + o"compound words are not the same, and there can be typical"preposition + o"compound words and non-typical"preposition + o"compound words. Among all the"preposition + o"compound words of formations, the most notable is the preposition stranding, which deserves mentioning. Finally, this paper offers a comparatively systematic description of the categories of"preposition + o"compound words, from the perspective of part of speech , and it makes a hypothesis of the future development of"preposition + o"compound words as an ending of the whole dissertation.