| Vocabulary is a central part of the language.Chinese vocabulary system consists of various components and is of complex structure.How to systematically study vocabulary is an important topic in Chinese vocabulary researches.The semantic field theory has been widely used in the study of Chinese vocabulary as it clearly shows the systematicness and hierarchy of vocabulary.At present,most researches mainly focus on the synchronic expression of the semantic field,and lack of the comparative study on the expression of the same semantic field in different periods.In this thesis,we study the verb "binding" in the middle ancient Chinese from the perspective of semantic field theory.We make a synchronic description of the semantic field of the verb "binding" and its members,sort out the composition of the semantic field of the verb "binding" in middle ancient times and plot a detailed distribution of members of this semantic field in this period.Meanwhile,we explore the evolution of the semantic field of the verb "binding" by comparing its expression in middle ancient times to modern times and analyze the reasons for this evolution.We show that in the semantic field of the verb "binding" in the middle ancient Chinese,the main distinguishing feature among members lies in objects and purposes of "binding".In the process of evolution,a large number of old members disappear from the semantic field and new members come in,because of the internal development of members as well as the competition among them.Members of the semantic field in the modern Chinese have changed significantly comparing with the middle ancient Chinese.Also,due to the influence of language users' cognitive patterns,the evolution of the members in the semantic field of "binding" generally tends to be abstract,which makes certain "binding" verbs gradually disappear from the semantic field in the middle ancient Chinese,and also has an impact on the evolution of "binding" verbs in the modern Chinese. |
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