The Grammaticalization Of The Comparative Meaning "You" In Modern Chinese And Its Comparison With "Bi"

In modern Chinese,"You" can be used as a preposition to introduce comparative objects,which is frequently used in spoken language."X + You + Y + A" is a typical sentence pattern in which the preposition "You" appears,and "You" leads to the comparative object "Y" and "A" explains the comparative result.At the beginning of its use,"You" mainly means existence and possession.In the process of grammaticalization,the meaning of "You" is changed because of the change of its subsequent components."You" derives the meanings of measurement,enumeration and estimation from the expression of existence and possession.During the Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties,the change of the syntactic position of You was the premise of the preposition of You.In addition to semantic changes,language communication is also one of the causes of grammaticalization.As for the choice of structural items,in the comparative sentences of "X + You + Y + A" and "X + Bi+ Y + A",noun,verb and pronoun can all enter the comparative items "X" and "Y".In the comparative sentence pattern of "X+Bi+Y+A",the adjective components can enter "X" and "Y",while the comparative sentence pattern of "X+You+Y+A" can not."A" in "X+You+Y+A" can be monosyllabic adjectives,disyllabic adjectives and positive and negative adjective structures.In "X+Bi+Y+A",A can only be a monosyllabic adjective and a disyllabic adjective;in terms of semantic features,the comparative sentence pattern of "X+You+Y+A" shows the semantic features of [+degree],[+equivalence],[+approximation].The comparative sentence pattern of "X+Bi+Y+A" shows the semantic features of [+degree],[+victory].In terms of semantic orientation,"X + You + Y + A" in comparative sentences generally refers to both "X" and "Y".In the comparative sentence of "X+Bi+Y+A",the comparative result "A" generally points to "X";in pragmatics,"X+You+Y+A" and "X+Bi+Y+A" both have themes and topics.The comparative sentence pattern of "X + MeiYou + Y + A" is an objective description of the degree difference between the two sides,and its subjectivity is weak.The comparative sentence of "X +BuBi + Y + A" has the opposite presupposition with "Y·A",which is more subjective.The grammaticalization degree of preposition "You" is lower than that of "Bi".From the perspective of semantic grammaticalization,the comparative meaning of "You" coexists with other meanings,while "Bi" only means comparison;from the perspective of syntactic collocation,the comparative result itemsentering the comparative sentence "You" are more restricted,while the comparative result items of the comparative sentence "Bi" are less restricted;from the perspective of frequency of use,the preposition "You" is less frequently used than the preposition "Bi".