A Semantic-map Approach To The Comitative Preposition In Chinese Language

In modern Chinese language,"he、gen、yu、gong" and some other preposition words are always called words in "he" class. Words of this type are polysemous and multifunctional. These words can present conjunction and comitative at the same time. Meanwhile, they show similar methods of grammaticalization.In this thesis,"semantic map" is proposed and discussed as a new typology method. Using this research method, based on various dialect data, this thesis try to distinguish two things: first, the concept area that each proposition word covers; second, how different semantic morphemes of one preposition words connect with each other.The first chapter of the thesis attempts to conclude the research results on the polysemy and grammaticalization of "he" class word by the predecessors. The second chapter introduces "semantic map". Based on data of Jianghuai Mandarin and other dialects in Anhui Province, the chapter three compares different preposition words used in different dialects. The chapter four deep dives into other dialect’s data, and compares each word’s concept area. The chapter five analyses the concept areas which these preposition words cover, and makes the conclusion.