A Study Of Adjective-adverb Lexemes In Chinese-English Dictionaries From The Perspective Of The Two-level Word Class Categorization Theory

The study of word classes has long been a hot-spot and daunting topic in the international linguistic community,and there exist long-term controversies on Chinese word class studies,of which heterosemy is among the thorniest ones.Since we established the principle that Chinese has word classes and words have fixed categories,the mainstream Chinese linguists have been strongly advocating the application of the principle of parsimony in dealing with heterosemy or multiple word class mebership,and there even successively appear contentions of canceling heterosemy.However,even so,the heterosemy among nouns,verbs and adjectives is accepted in the vast majority of mainstream Chinese textbooks and dictionaries,by contrast,ever since adverbs are deeply branded as adverbial-only word class,the heterosemy between adjectives and adverbs is nearly totally gainsaid.In view of relatively scanty empirical studies in terms of heterosemy between Chinese adjectives and adverbs,and few empirical studies concerning heterosemy between Chinese adjectives and adverbs in dictionaries,this thesis firstly selects adjective-adverb lexemes in A Chinese-English dictionary(3^rd edition),New Century Chinese-English Dictionary?2ⁿdd edition?and The Chinese-English Translation Dictionary as objects of our study;then,under the guidance of the Two-level Word Class Categorization Theory,on the basis of usage pattern surveys in CN corpus,this thesis makes in-depth investigations into the identification,exemplification and factual word class membership of targeted adjective-adverb lexemes.The results suggest that the principle of parsimony sets the keynote in the three dictionaries;with regard to common adjective-adverb lexemes of the three dictionaries,unmarked adverbial usages occupy the overwhelming majority in both exemplification and corpus-based usage patterns;in comparison,in terms of exclusive adjective-adverb lexemes of the three dictionaries,A Chinese-English dictionary(3^rd edition)and New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(2^nd edition)exhibit salient resemblance in treating exclusive adjective-adverb lexemes of The Chinese-English Translation Dictionary as adjectives;corpus-based usage pattern surveys reveal merits and demerits of the three dictionaries:The Chinese-English Translation Dictionary mistakenly treats unconventional adverbial usage patterns and marked usage patterns as conventional adverbial usage patterns on the basis of syntactic functions;while the rest of the three dictionaries observe the principle that Chinese adjectives per se can serve as adverbials,thus they are overcautious in identifying adjective-adverb lexemes;moreover,there is a conspicuous phenomenon that the adjective word class is mismatched with adverbial usages in considerable lexemes,which jointly expose the underlying cruxes behind the divergences on adjective-adverb lexemes of the three dictionaries;Furthermore,corpus-based usage pattern surveys suggest that there is a positive correlation between heterosemy and word frequency,and this is also true of the relationship between the proportion of unmarked adverbial usages and word frequency,which further provides cogent evidence for the objectivity and reasonableness of the existence of adjective-adverb heterosemy in communal language.Above all,albeit in comparison with The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary?6^thh edition?,there is a salient increment in the number of adjective-adverb lexemes of each of the three Chinese-English dictionaries?especially for The Chinese-English Translation Dictionary?,the treatment of adjective-adverb lexemes varies considerably from the real situation of adjective-adverb lexemes in Chinese;the divergences in adjective-adverb lexemes of the three dictionaries undoubtedly truthfully epitomize the quandaries in Chinese word class studies:in the final analysis,it is the misconception of the culturally inherited communal language as the natural product that have brought about these quandaries in Chinese word class studies and divergences in our study.To conclude,this study proposes reasonable solutions to protracted problems in the heterosemy between Chinese adjectives and adverbs,offers rational suggestions for the amelioration of Chinese-English dictionaries'compilations,and affords some implications for heterosemy and word class studies in Chinese and thousands of analytic languages.