Study On Definition Standard And Grammaticalization Of Class Affix In Modern Chinese Language

For a long time, due to the small number of typical affixes in Chinese, Chinese language has been a typical representative of isolating language. The study of Chinese affixes and related content has not gotten enough attention of linguists, most scholars just put it as a vassal of word formation system. But with the development of society, the frequency of foreign exchange, emerging modern Chinese new words show class affixes or similar class affixes in a large number. Then, whether these components are truly class affixes? How do we properly define them? Dose the emergence of class affixes show that Chinese language is translating from isolating language for adhesion language? All these issues require our careful study.Firstly, this paper further explores the characteristics and the nature of the class affixes. From morphological concept, as the unity of grammatical form and grammatical meaning, class affixes are morphological markers in modern Chinese and belong to morphological formation. From the perspective of word formation, class affixes are derived word morpheme which adhere to the roots; From the system of concept, class affixes and typical affixes are two lower parallel concepts; From the diachronic perspective, class affix is an intermediate stage between Chinese notional morpheme and typical affix.Secondly, according to the actual situation of Chinese, this paper analyse class affixes again, trying to provide a relatively clear division standard for the definition of Chinese class affixes. And we consider the relative emptiness of significance is the decisive criterion. Positioning and non-separate part of speech are necessary standards. Productive and POS tagging are important criterions. Of course, in actual operation,these five criteria should be taken into account and can not be neglected. In addition, this paper argues that the prototype category theory have a good guide in defining the class affixes.Finally, this paper discusses the grammar characteristic of class affixes from two aspects. The grammaticalization of class affix includes two aspects. One is the translation from the morpheme which has a tendency to be class affix to typical affix, the other is the process from phrases and cross-layer structure to affix, which is called "lexicalization". In the analysis, we found that the first progress mainly occurs in local-originated affixes and loan affixes, while the second progress is unique in Chinese local-originated affixes and almost do not appear in loan affixes. In addition, high-frequency use is the necessary condition of the grammaticalization of class affixes.