Study On The Complex Form Of Chinese Approximate Quantity Expression

Generally speaking, there are three forms of approximate quantity expression:1.Numeral or quantitative phrases; 2.Approximators (numbers are not included); 3. Combination of numeral/quantitative phrases and approximators. What we intend to explore in this dissertation is: the complex combination of the three forms above. According to its distinguishing characteristics, we adopt the definition "Complex Form of Approximate" by one of the scholars. Based on the analysis of the collecting corpus, this dissertation aims to study on this complex form from the " Three Planes ":Grammar, Semantics and Pragmatics.This dissertation first focuses on the grammatical structure of the "complex form". Analysis conveys that it was constructed based on the co-occurrence of two or more than two approximate quantity expressions.Subsequently we analyze the semantic features of single approximate quantity expression, and classify them as:1.Definite upper and lower limit of the related quantity; 2. Cause the related quantity's upper and lower limit fuzzy; 3.Cause the upper limit fuzzy; 4.Cause the lower limit fuzzy. By comparison of the fuzzy degree connected to the four categories, we intend to discover their mobility when they constructed a "complex form".As to the pragmatic analysis, we put emphasis on two points:the purport that the speaker wants to convey by using the "complex form", and the pragmatic strategy.