The Multi-perspective Comparative Study Of Guanyu, Zhiyu And Duiyu Based On Corpus

Academic interests in guanyu, zhiyu and duiyu mainly concentrate on the ontological research of them or on studying them as topic markers. Although some scholars have noticed and studied their common features, comparative studies on the three words are still insufficient. This thesis takes guanyu, zhiyu and duiyu as research object, explores the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic similarities and differences between them, and interprets the causes of their discrepancies by the corpus-based method.The thesis is composed of six parts. Part one is a brief introduction of the paper,which includes the current research status, background and significance, research methods and the source of the data.Part two analyzes the lexicalization and grammaticalization of X yu from the diachronic level. The grammaticalization of guanyu was completed in the Ming Dynasty.In the Pre- Qin period, zhiyu was used as a verb and its grammaticalization had been finished in the Ming Dynasty. As a verb, the lexicalization of duiyu was complete in the Northern Song Dynasty and duiyu was grammaticalized as a preposition in the Ming Dynasty.Part three is a synchronic analysis of the word class, syntactic distribution and combination ability of guanyu, zhiyu and duiyu. In the syntactic distribution, the part gives a primary illustration of the prepositional structure X yu and its subsequent objects on a whole, which includes its position and syntactic component in a sentence.X yu lies in the initial or middle position of a sentence,and guanyu can also be located in the end of a sentence. With regard to the combination ability, this part mainly explores the composition of the objects following X yu, which can be the components of nominal,predicate, prepositional phrase, sentence or clause.Part four conducts the comparative research of ganyu, zhiyu and duiyu from the perspective of thematic role and semantic relation. In terms of the thematic role, guanyu is followed by objects with agentivity, and zhiyu is followed by objects with patientivity while the thematic role of objects following duiyu can be agent, patient or theme. As regards the semantic relation, the part makes a principal exploration of the semantic relations between the subsequent components of guanyu and the predicate verb, between the before and after events guided by zhiyu, as well as between the following constituents of duiyu and the predicate verb.Part five examines the discrepancies of pragamatic functions of guanyu, zhiyu and duiyu in journalistic and literary stylistics on the basis of corpus approach. Evidentiality theory is used to analyze guanyu in journalistic stylistics, which indicates the source and content of the information being reported and embodies the objectivity and authority of the main information. Frame theory is adopted to illustrate discourse relations between the two events guided by zhiyu in literary stylistics. And subjectification theory is employed to analyze the interactivity of duiyu in literary stylistics.Part six is the conclusion of the whole thesis. It summarizes the research fruits and innovations of the thesis and points out the limitations, which need to be further studied and explored.