Modern Chinese Grammar Theory

Author: Deng Yingshu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: Two, The classification of morphemes allows for multi-angle and multi-aspect observation, enabling morphemes to be categorized into different classes based on different criteria. The purpose of classification is to more comprehensively reveal the nature and functions of morphemes.
(1) Monosyllabic morphemes and polysyllabic morphemes
Monosyllabic morphemes are morphemes composed of a single syllable, classified from the perspective of the length or number of syllables of the morpheme. Examples include "," "," "," "," and "." Monosyllabicity is one of the main features of Chinese morphemes and also a feature of Chinese, manifested as: (1) Monosyllabic morphemes account for a overwhelming majority of all morphemes; (2) Their ability to form words is far stronger than that of polysyllabic morphemes. The monosyllabic nature of Chinese morphemes is related to the phonological system of modern Chinese. The phonemic phonemes of modern standard Chinese consist of more than 400 syllables, and when combined with tones, there are about 1,300 syllables. These syllables can convey meaning without needing to be extended in length, thanks to the role of tones in enhancing the efficiency of single-syllable meaning. Short morpheme length is economical and effortless to use; however, many modern Chinese monosyllabic morphemes have homophones with different meanings, leading to the formation of compound words, resulting in a large number of disyllabic words to meet communicative needs. Chinese morphemes, whether they are root morphemes or affixes, are often monosyllabic, which is different from the average length of root morphemes exceeding that of affixes in major Indo-European languages. Chinese has a few morphemes that are less than a syllable long, such as the suffix "-" in the erhua syllable; however, from the perspective of etymology and reading tones, they are still monosyllabic morphemes. Polysyllabic morphemes are composed of two or more syllables, where each syllable does not independently convey any meaning. They are one of the morpheme categories classified based on length and the number of syllables. They can be further divided into disyllabic morphemes, trisyllabic morphemes, and so on. Chinese disyllabic morphemes are far fewer than monosyllabic morphemes, and those with three or more syllables are even rarer. Statistics show that disyllabic morphemes account for only about 3% of the total number of morphemes. Most polysyllabic morphemes take the form of compounding words, reduplicated words, or transliterated words, such as "," "," "," "," "," "," "," "," and "." Polysyllabic morphemes generally form words independently and have a much weaker ability to form compound words compared to monosyllabic morphemes. Only a few polysyllabic morphemes have the ability to form words, such as "," which can form "," "," and "." Some polysyllabic morphemes appear in a monosyllabic form when used as morpheme components, such as "," "," "," "," "," "," "," and "." They are often compressed into a single syllable in compound words. For example, in "," "," "," "," "," "," "," and "," the syllables "," "," and "" are no longer meaningless syllables but have become new monosyllabic morphemes, or what are called compressed morphemes.
(2) Free morphemes and bound morphemes
Regarding free morphemes, a strict definition is that they can be used alone or can form sentences independently. Free morphemes are one of the classifications based on the mobility of morphemes, contrasting with bound morphemes. Free morphemes can have pauses at both ends, meaning both ends are free and are not fixedly attached to other morphemes. Examples in Chinese include "," "," "," and "." However, free morphemes are not always free; most free morphemes can combine with other morphemes to form compound words, at which point they are no longer free morphemes. Therefore, free morphemes are sometimes free and sometimes not. Interjections are often used alone and can be considered frequently free morphemes. A less strict definition of free morphemes is that they can be used alone or can form words independently. Using a morpheme alone does not necessarily mean it can be used alone; it simply means it is not fixedly attached to other morphemes. Not all Chinese words can be used alone, so not all words that can form words independently can be used alone. For example, the function words "" and "" can be used alone but cannot be used alone; however, their relationship with other morphemes or morpheme combinations is free. For example, some morphemes that are not used alone can also be free under special conditions, such as "(Xinhua News Agency, fifth day) report," "," "," "," and "." These position-free morphemes are all single-use morphemes. Some grammar books also refer to them as free morphemes or semi-free morphemes. Bound morphemes, also known as attached morphemes, are morphemes that cannot be used alone or cannot form sentences independently. They are one of the classifications based on the mobility of morphemes. Contrasting with free morphemes, some grammar works also refer to them as "unfree morphemes." Bound morphemes are always attached to other morphemes, such as "," "," "," "," "," "," "," and "." Some grammar works only consider as unfree morphemes, such as the prefixes "," "," and "," as well as the suffixes "," "," and "."
Four, Mixed phenomena between words and phrases in modern Chinese
Modern Chinese lacks morphology, and there are many issues that are not easily cut and dried, with the boundaries between words and phrases not being clearly defined. Below, we will briefly introduce the complex phenomena that exist between words and phrases from the perspectives of vocabulary, grammar, writing, and discourse communication. For related issues, you can refer directly to 《Modern Chinese Knowledge Dictionary》 or Lu Shuxiang's 《Analysis of Chinese Grammar Problems》.
(1) Vocabulary
Vocabulary words are the basic units of vocabulary, i.e., what are generally referred to as words, named in contrast to grammatical words. Vocabulary units conform to the intuition of people who use the native language; they not only have independent lexical meaning but also have independent collocation ability, and they generally have a certain length. The average length of morphemes in different languages affects the average length of words. For example, people who speak Chinese generally believe that Chinese words do not exceed two syllables. The term "vocabulary word" was proposed by linguists when analyzing the boundaries of words, considering that some morpheme combinations do not conform to both lexical and grammatical principles. From the perspective of lexical principles, words conform to people's intuition, with a relatively small number of syllables and a relatively simple structure. For example, in Chinese, "," "," "," and "" are all words; while combinations of four syllables are often considered several words, such as "," "," "," "," "," and "." However, from the perspective of grammatical principles, they cannot be split or expanded, and some contain components that cannot be used alone. Although they do not conform to the boundaries of lexical units that meet people's intuition, they should still be considered words rather than phrases in grammatical theory. Such units can also be called grammatical words. However, in most cases, lexical principles and grammatical principles are consistent, meaning that most compound words are both vocabulary words and grammatical words. Their average length conforms to people's intuition, their structure is not too complex, and they cannot be split or expanded, such as "," "," "," "," and the non-single-use "," "," and "."
(2) Grammatical words
1. Also known as "theoretical words," this term is proposed from the perspective of grammatical principles when analyzing morpheme combinations. It is relative to lexical words and written words. Grammatically, they possess the qualifications of words, such as being unable to be split or arbitrarily expanded; some have morphological overall shaping, regardless of length, whether they conform to people's intuition, or whether they are written as a single word in an alphabetic script. For example, in English "ThekingofEngland, shat" (the hat of the king of England), the "-s" is attached to the entire "ThekingofEngland" rather than just to "England," so "ThekingofEngland’s" has overall shaping and is a long word, not several words. However, Chinese affixes can not only be attached to root morphemes but also to phrases, so Chinese grammatical words are not marked by this. Chinese grammatical words refer to combinations like "" and "," which cannot be split or expanded.
2. Refers to items with the same grammatical form and the same grammatical function, regardless of whether their lexical items are the same. For example, "," "," and "" are the same lexical word but each is a grammatical word. "," "," and "" are the same lexical word but are the same grammatical word.
(2) The hierarchical system of word categories and the position of distinguishing words in this system
According to the grammatical function of words, all words can be divided into different grammatical categories. Words of the same category must have enough common grammatical functions, while words of different categories must have distinguishing grammatical functions. However, as Mr. Zhu Dexi pointed out: "To say that words of the same category have commonalities does not mean that their grammatical functions are completely the same." "Words of different categories must have distinct individualities, which does not mean that there are no commonalities between them at all." Because of the relationship between the grammatical functions of word categories, we can group words with commonalities from different categories into a larger category based on the commonalities between them, or divide them into smaller categories based on the differences among words of the same category. Real words and function words are two super-large categories that we have divided based on whether they can serve as components. We can also choose certain criteria to further classify real words and function words. The result of hierarchical classification can construct a hierarchical system of word categories. Horizontally, within the same level of categories, there must be distinguishing functions that are universal internally and exclusive externally. Vertically, in categories with a subordinate relationship, the necessary distinguishing function of the higher level becomes one of the grammatical functions of the lower level, and the entire grammatical functions of the lower level must necessarily include the necessary distinguishing function of the higher level. This is what we call the hierarchical system of word categories. By hierarchically classifying word categories, we can obtain the basic word categories of the word category system, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The so-called basic word categories do not mean that this is the end of word category classification, but the established basic word categories must be able to clearly and concisely describe the combination rules of basic syntactic structures in modern Chinese and clearly and concisely summarize the role of different categories of function words in combinations. In fact, there are differences within the basic word categories, so smaller subcategories can be divided. The division of subcategories is also an important part of grammatical research and is gaining increasing attention from grammarians, as in-depth subcategory division is conducive to more fully revealing combination rules. In the word category system of modern Chinese, the hierarchical division is into real words and function words. Of course, we cannot reveal the combination rules of modern Chinese based solely on this classification, both real words and function words must be further classified. Here, we will discuss the classification of real words.