A Contrastive Optimality Analysis Of Constraints On Element Ordering In English And Chinese Coordinate Noun-noun Compounds

The issue of element ordering in compounds is one of the research emphases in the study of language order.When it comes to element ordering in coordinate noun-noun compounds,it has been studied from phonological,semantic and pragmatic perspectives with remarkable results.Nevertheless,there are some controversies in the existing studies regarding the hierarchical order of constraints:some scholars believe that semantic factors play a decisive role,while others hold phonological determinism.Scholars have not reached an agreement yet.In addition,existing studies have failed to scientifically generalize the hierarchical order of constraints.Therefore,although previous studies have addressed some issues,they lack a holistic and systematic approach.Based on the Optimality Theory,this thesis adopts the approach of quantitative statistics and data analysis to find out the constraints that restrict the element ordering in English and Chinese coordinate noun-noun compounds and their hierarchical order at the phonological and semantic levels respectively and attempts to disclose the hierarchical order of phonological constraints and semantic constraints,so as to reveal how these words are formed and work out the similarities and differences between them.The constraints that may restrict the element ordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds involved in the thesis are: Syllable Number,Stress,Initial Consonant Complexity,Final Consonant Complexity,Vowel Length,Initial Consonant Obstruency,Final Consonant Obstruency,Vowel Quality,Temporal Iconicity,Experiential Closeness,Superiority,Profession,Property,Kinship and Characteristic Activity;the constraints that may restrict the element ordering of Chinese coordinate noun-noun compounds involved in the thesis are: Tone,Initial Consonant Type,Vowel Length,Vowel Tongue Position,Temporal Iconicity,Experiential Closeness and Superiority.It is found that:(1)At the phonological level,the only constraint that restricts the element ordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds is FCCSWR,which indicates that the morpheme with a larger number of final consonants should be placed on the right side.Constraints that restrict the element ordering in Chinese coordinate noun-noun compounds are Tone SWR,ICTSWR,and VLSWL.Their hierarchical order is Tone SWR > ICTSWR > VLSWL.Tone SWR indicates that the order of morphemes should be arranged from left to right according to the tone order of Chinese Pinyin;ICTSWR requires that the morphemes with voiced consonant should be placed on the right,while VLSWL requires the morpheme with longer vowels should be placed on the left.(2)At the semantic level,constraints on element ordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds are Kinship SWR,Temp SWL,Super SWL and Profession SWL.Their hierarchical order can not be determined based on the compounds that are collected in the thesis.Kinship SWR requires that the morpheme whose semantic category is kinship should be posted on the right side;Temp SWL requires that the morpheme that occurs first should be posted on the left side;Super SWL requires that the morpheme with higher rank should be posted on the left side;Profession SWL requires that the morpheme whose semantic category is profession should be posted on the left side.Constraints on element ordering of Chinese coordinate noun-noun compounds are Temp SWL,Super SWL and Close SWL.Their hierarchical order is: Close SWL > Temp SWL > Super SWL.Like the constraints on the element ordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds,Temp SWL requires that the morpheme that occurs first should be posted on the left side and Super SWL requires that the morpheme with a higher rank should be posted on the left side.In addition,Close SWL requires that the morpheme that is closer to the virtual prototype speaker should be posted on the left side.(3)In comparing the hierarchical order between phonological and semantic constraints,English and Chinese coordinate noun-noun compounds have the same hierarchical relationship.That’s semantic constraints > phonological constraints.The findings of this study can help language learners better understand the similarities and differences between English and Chinese coordinate noun-noun compounds so that they can better master and use these compounds.