Evaluation And Development Of The Time Word 'Xian Zai'

In modern Chinese,time word is a special part of speech and the research for time word is a basic issue of linguistics.Our predecessors has described and explained it from every aspects on Chinese time word.Although they insist on their own opinion on classifying time word,it didn't effect us to do some deeper research.�Xian Zai(??)�is a typical time word in modern Chinese and it should belong to now-meaning time word.The article starts from the point of diachronic study and tries to make a elaborate explanation on the resource and the development of�Xian Zai(??)�and explain the intrinsic mechanism of this word on account of the extension of lexical meaning and lexcicalization.The article is divided into four parts.The first part is introduction,mainly introduces the significance of the research topic,the object of study,the research method and resource of the corpus.The second part is the resource of the word�Xian Zai(??)�.According to the rule of singlesyllable word being dominant in ancient Chinese,�Xian Zai(??)�should be a non-word parataxis structure,which consists of�Xian(?)�and�Zai(?)�.Meanwhile,�Xian(?)�is equal to�Xian(?)�in ancient Chinese texts.Thus,we firstly inspect the specific manifestation of the singlesyllable word�Xian(?)�and�Zai(?)�in ancient Chinese texts and the development of their lexical and grammatical function and explain their relationships and differences between them on this basis.On the basis of the contact above,we inspect the co-occurrence of�Xian(?/?)�and�Zai(?)�including the first time they appear and the lexcial and grammatical differences of them in sentences.At the same time,we also inspect their specific manifestation in Buddhist texts.The third part is the development of�Xian Zai(??)�.In this part,we divide the Chinese language history into six phases:Han dynasty,the South and North Dynasty,Sui,Tang and five dynasties,Song Dynasty,Yuan,Ming Dynasties and Qing Dynasty.We described the lexical and grammatical feature and the process of the development of their lexical and syntactic function.The forth part is the lexcicalizational process of�Xian Zai(??)�.This part explained and argued how�Xian Zai(??)�became a two-syllable time word from�Xian(?/?)�and�Zai(?)�on the basis of last part.It is involved that the word�Jin(?)�from the structure�Jin Xian Zai(??/??)�gradually detached because it has the same meaning with�Xian Zai(?/??)�.The article takes the writing method which is combined argument and description and inspect the resource and the development of�Xian Zai(??)�by the aspects of lexicalization,grammar,co-occurrence and so on.�Xian Zai(??)�largely appeared in the translated Buddhist texts first.It is a newly-made word by the translator for the accuracy of transmission of the doctrine.Not like other words,its appearance is unexpected.Furthermore,the texts and the spoken language are separated at that time,so that,�Xian Zai(??)�was barely appeared in the spoken language.However,we can't deny the indelible effect to the further development of�Xian Zai(??)�made by the import and prosperity of Buddhism.