The Diachronic Semantic Map Study On Guo

Guo is a typical word of "heterogeneous polysemy",which means that there are multiple meanings of guo which are interrelated but belong to different grammatical categories.Hence,its heterogeneity has attracted the attention of many linguists.Although the predecessors have studied the semantics and grammaticalization of guo in detail,systematic research on its heterogeneous polysemy and cross-linguistic comparison have not been involved from the perspective of semantic diachronic evolution.Based on this point,this thesis intends to study the semantic diachronic evolution of guo from the perspective of linguistic typology with the Semantic Map Model.Meanwhile,the Semantic Map Model is an effective analytical tool for characterizing the differences and commonalities between grammatical forms and grammatical meanings in cross-linguistics.Although it has not been widely used in Chinese studies at present,based on abundant Chinese dialects and rich diachronic corpus,Zhang Min(2009),as a typical representative,has proposed that semantic maps can provide new ideas and new perspectives for the studies of Chinese semantics and grammars.That is to say,the conceptual space based on Chinese dialects or corpus of different historical periods may contain cross-linguistic universals.The view of finding cross-linguistic universals based on diachronic corpus in one certain language is "to see a world in a grain of sand".With the guidance of the theories of the Classical Semantic Map Model and the Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Model,according to the researching methods of diachronic semantic maps studied by Guardamagna(2012)and Beeching&Wang(2014),with the combination of qualitative and quantitative and the combination of diachronic and synchronic,this thesis will try to analyze the diachronic semantic evolution of guo based on ancient Chinese corpus and to verify its universals in cross-linguistic typology.The analysis method of comparative will be taken in this study to conduct a detailed demonstration of semantic maps.First of all,this thesis collects 13,575 corpora of guo from the Chinese Linguistics Research Center of Peking University.These corpora mainly come from the documentaries from Western Zhou Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty.with a total of n ine historical periods.Then,through the detailed analysis of the corpus,under the guidance of the Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Model,this thesis will distinguish 31 different meanings and will analyze the derivative relationship among these meanings.On this basis,with the help of the method of constructing conceptual spaces,the conceptual space of guo based on ancient Chinese corpus can be finished successfully.At the same time,according to the corpus of different historical periods,the semantic maps of each historical period can be figured out,and then the diachronic semantic evolution can be analyzed.At last,in order to verify the universals of various languages,the semantic maps of the corresponding words from English,F rench and Japanese can be worked out on this conceptual space.Of course,then we can make cross-linguistic comparison based on the semantic maps.According to the detailed comparative research,several findings have come to light.(1)From the perspective of the entire semantic evolution,with the development of history,the meanings of guo based on ancient Chinese corpus are constantly expanding,even though the developing speeds in each period are different.It can be attested clearly that in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty,the semantic evolution develops very fast.However,in the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty,the semantic development of guo is relatively slow.(2)From the perspective of semantic distribution on its conceptual space,the conceptual space of guo spreads out from the basic meaning "go through/to" to the periphery.The important meanings with higher frequency are closer to the basic meaning,while the marginal meanings with lower frequency are farther.The proximity of the conceptual space reveals the implicational relationship of different meanings and then can be used to make some certain semantic derivative predictions.For example,here is a kind of implicational relationship:"go through/to"?surpass/exceed"?"excessively/over"As long as appearing the meanings "go through/to" and "excessively/over" at the same time in a certain period,it can be predicted that guo must contain the meaning"exceed/surpass" at least in one period.(3)By comparing the semantic maps of the corresponding words from English,Japanese and French,it can be found that most meanings of these corresponding words are completely reflected in the conceptual space This phenomenon indicates that the conceptual space of guo based on the ancient Chinese corpus in different historical periods has the implicational universals and possesses the potential value of cross-linguistic comparison.