Comparative Approach To Language Study And The Research On "De" In "It Was Yesterday When He Went To Beijing"

Based on the universal grammar theory of Chomsky, not only the related languages, but also those languages which influence each other or form a language alliance have the same or similar typology on grammar or have a similar or corresponding relation in other aspects. Therefore any two kinds of languages must have similar or corresponding points, so it can reveal lots of things by comparative or corresponding research. Based on translation rules, we can roughly construct a corresponding relation between two languages. Based on this corresponding relation, we may use structure of one language to explain the structure of the other language. This thesis uses comparative approach to analysis "de" out of the structure of "It was yesterday when he went to Beijing"in Chinese, aims at describing the characters and historical origin of the "de4", thus finds out the similarities between the structure "it be......that" in English and the "de4" in Chinese. The thesis is divided into eight chapters, specifically summarized as follows:(A) The introduction chapter has described the object of this thesis, research method and the significance of study, which outlines the general conclusions and research ideas of the full thesis.(B) The first chapter is a review of the "de4" in Chinese, which is divided into two parts:The first part describes several focus aspects of the special "de4". The second part analyses the current research problems. Now the arguments about the "de44"in linguistics are:Is the "de4" an interfacing component or an attaching component? Is the "V+de4"structure a self-contained grammatical structure or a structure which omits a noun composition? Is the "V+de4" structure a noun composition or not? Is the "de4" coming from ancient Chinese "zhi" or "zhe" or other ingredients? What is the relationship between the "de4" and so-called modal particle "de"?(C) The second chapter introduces the basis of this thesis-the theory of universal grammar and comparative approach to language. Chomsky’s universal grammar theory provides a theoretical basis for correspondence research among languages. The comparative approach to language offers a practical approach for correspondence translation among languages. Such correspondence research among languages has already been mentioned in Mashi Wentong which is the first modern grammar book in Chinese linguistic history.(D) The third chapter describes the characters of the "de4" from five aspects. This "de4" generally appears between verb and object or follows after no object verb. It is usually used in perfect tense sentence. The structure can reflect some certain preset information and ask for further details to emphasize. The negative form of the "de4" usually adds "bu shi" in front of the verb, the focus or the emphasis information.(E) The fourth chapter analyses the similarities and differences between the "de44" and aspect marker "le""zhe". The third chapter has introduced the characters of the "de4", which has some similarities with "le""zhe", mainly as they are all located between verb and object, they are all used in perfect tense or continuous tense, they are able to convey a certain tone and so on, but essentially they are not the same composition."le""zhe" come from the verb of ancient Chinese and its negative form uses "mei you" in front of the verb, the focus or the emphasis information. While the "de4" has nominal characters and its negative form uses "bu shi" in front of the verb, the focus or the emphasis information.(F) The fifth chapter describes the historical source of the "de" in the structure "de4". By the way of using examples to analysis the correspondence relationship between "de4" structure and "zhe" structure, we can draw a conclusion that "de4" comes from "zhe". While in ancient Chinese "zhe" is a demonstrative pronoun, thus the "de4" is also a pronoun.(G) The sixth chapter uses Chinese-English translation method to prove the "de4" is a pronoun. In the correspondence translation, we can visually find out the relationship between the "de4" and emphasizing structure in English, combined with the change progress of "that" in emphasis sentence, we can draw a conclusion that:the "de4" is a relative pronoun as "that" in ancient English. While both the "de4" and "that" in emphasis sentence have corresponding alternative pronouns in modern languages, which further proves that the correspondence relationship between "de4" and "that".(H) The seventh chapter summaries the full thesis, sums up the basic ideas, puts forward the issues and directions for further research.