The Grammaticalization Of The Verb “Wei”(为)

The Mandarin verb “wei”is one of the most commonly used prepositions in contemporary C hinese language. With the purpose of illustrating the usage of the word “wei”,this thesis traces the grammaticalization process of Mandarin word “wei”and makes an attempt to explore motives,mechanisms and patterns of its grammaticalization. The major research subjects are as followed:The research significance, research scope, research methods, a brief overview of the linguistic data cited in this paper and the clarification of symbol usage are mainly introduced in the Introduction part of the thesis. And next we research review of grammaticalization theories. we describe the grammaticalization phenomena, classify previous research status of grammaticalization theories and try to further elucidate this theory on the basis of previous studies. The main body of the paper we use the synchronic and diachronic comparative research methods; quantitative analysis,and forms to describe the Chinese verb "wei". we introduce the accessible data on research status of “wei” by far and describe the distribution situation of contemporary Chinese “wei” with the methodology of synchronic study. And besides we draw a conclusion of five evolution paths of wei’s grammaticalization by examining the usage status of “wei” at different periods of time. On the basis of that we explain the grammaticalization process of “wei” from the perspectives of grammaticalization motives, mechanisms and patterns.