Research On New Prepositions Of Yuan And Ming Dynasty

Yuan and Ming dynasty are the important stage of Chinese prepositionsdevelopment, in which a lot of new prepositions emerged. Based on the theory ofgrammaticalization, this paper focused on new prepositions of Yuan and Ming dynasty,including the semantics, the emerging sources, the grammaticalization processes and thefeatures.The first part if all about introducing the basic situation of Chinese prepositions bydescribing the distinguishment of prepositions from verbs and conjunctions, and also theclassification of prepositions.Secondly, summarizing and describing the system and basic features of prepositionsin Yuan and Ming dynasties. Among new prepositions, the number of disyllabicprepositions, especially form of "X+zhe(着)","X+le(了)", has increased in this period.Most monosyllabic prepositions of Yuan and Ming dynasty inherited from ancientChinese dynasties.Finally, introducing semantic functions and basic situations of new prepositions inYuan and Ming dynasty. Analyses grammaticalization process of new prepositions inYuan and Ming dynasty. The semantic sources of prepositions in Yuan and Ming dynastynew were verbs or nouns. New prepositions presented through structural changing,semantic influence, cognitive factors, bisyllablization, reinforcement and the changes ofsyntactic structure. This chapter mainly researched on evolution processes andgrammaticalization mechanisms of new prepositions in Yuan and Ming dynasty.