A Study On The Lexicalization And Diachronic Evolution Of The Time Word "Riqian/nei/hou"

This paper investigates the semantic expression,syntactic function and pragmatic function of the group of time words "riqian","rinei" and "rihou" from the synchronic level;This paper investigates their lexicalization process and mechanism from the diachronic level,and analyzes the reasons for the evolution of word meaning of "riqian" and "rinei" in the diachronic development.The details are as follows:First,this paper examines the use of the group of time words "riqian","rinei" and "rihou" from the synchronic level.We consulted the relevant dictionaries and corpora,and investigated and analyzed the semantic expression,syntactic function and pragmatic function of the group of time words "riqian","rinei" and "rihou" at the synchronic level of modern Chinese.In terms of semantic expression,"riqian" means "near past",which is a few days ahead marked by "xianzai";"rinei" points to the future in semantic expression,but it is different from the real meaning of "weilai;jianglai",but a limited future,which means "near future";"rihou" means "far future",which is similar to the meaning of "yihou" and "jianglai".They are synonyms,but "yihou" can also be used after a specific time,while "rihou" and "jianglai" do not have such usage.In terms of syntactic function,we found that "riqian","rinei" and "rihou" can be used as attributives and Adverbials in sentences,but "rihou" can sometimes be used as objects of prepositions in sentences.Therefore,the three words belong to time nouns,but the usage of these three time nouns is different from that of time nouns such as "xianzai".The "riqian","rinei" and "rihou" can not be used as subjects and generally do not act as objects,but more as attributives and adverbials,And the functions of these three words are not exactly the same when compared with each other.In terms of pragmatic function,we find that "riqian","rinei" and "rihou" all have the function of backward jurisdiction in the specific pragmatic environment,but the command scope of "rinei" in the sentence is only component governance,while the command scope of "riqian" and "rihou" in the sentence can be divided into component governance,sentence governance and text governance.Secondly,this paper examines the lexicalization process of the group of time words "riqian","rinei" and "rihou".We find that "riqian" and "rihou" began to form words independently in the Song Dynasty,while "rinei" was formed later,and it began to form words independently in the Qing Dynasty.The lexicalization mechanism of the three can be divided into four aspects: Chinese disyllabic,re analysis,chunking psychology and analogy.In addition,this paper also investigates the reasons for the evolution of the word meaning of "riqian" and "rinei" in the diachronic development.We find that in ancient Chinese,"riqian" means "wangri;yiqian" and "muqian",and "rinei" means "near past" have not been used in modern Chinese This paper makes an in-depth analysis of the reasons for the evolution of their word meaning from three aspects: the economic principle of language and the dissemination and promotion of vernacular popular literature.