本文是一篇英语论文，本研究发现：（1）在语音层面，对英语并列式名名复合词素序起限制作用的只有FCCSWR，它表明节尾辅音数量较多的词素位于右侧；限制汉语并列式名名复合词素序的有ToneSWR，ICTSWR和VLSWL，三者的等级序列为ToneSWR＞ICTSWR＞VLSWL。其中，ToneSWR要求词素的顺序要按照汉语拼音的声调顺序由左向右进行排列，ICTSWR要求含有浊声母的词素位于右侧，VLSWL则要求韵母较长的词素位于左侧。
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Purposes and Significance
Element ordering refers to the sequence of morphemes in compounds.Differentfrom modifying compounds whose element ordering is constrained by the internalstructure,coordinate compounds are complex word forms in which the constituentsshare the equal status(Arcodia,2010);that is to say,the grammar constraint has nodecisive influence on element ordering of coordinate compounds.Such being the case,are they ordered randomly?If they are,why can only a few coordinate compoundshave their two morphemes reversed while their meaning remains the same?Definitely,there must be some other factors to constrain the element ordering of coordinatecompounds.Up to now,many scholars have already studied coordinate compoundsfrom many aspects,such as their morphological structure,their semantic structure,thegeneration mechanism and so on.Additionally,lots of researchers have alsoconducted studies on the element ordering of coordinate compounds fromphonological,semantic and pragmatic perspectives.However,there are somecontroversies in the existing studies regarding the hierarchical order of constraints:some scholars believe that semantic factors play a decisive role,while others holdphonological determinism.Scholars have not reached an agreement yet.In addition,seldom have they focused on the extent to which these constraints work and existingstudies have failed to scientifically generalize the hierarchical order of constraints.So,what constraints affect the element ordering of coordinate compounds?How do theseconstraints interact and eventually generate coordinate compounds?What is theirhierarchical order?Based on parts of speech of two morphemes,English coordinatecompounds can be divided into seven types:noun-noun compounds,adjective-adjective compounds,verb-verb compounds,adjective-noun compounds,noun-adjective compounds,noun-verb compounds and verb-noun compounds(Yang,2018),while Chinese coordinate compounds can be divided into three maintypes:noun-noun compounds,adjective-adjective compounds and verb-verbcompound(Li,2009).Due to the limited time,it is impossible to study all coordinatecompounds.
1.2 Research Method and Data Collection
The research method adopted in this thesis is both corpus-based and data-driven.It is unscientific and unreliable that only a small number of examples are provided toillustrate some principles and rules.In order to make the finding of this thesis moreobjective and convincing,this thesis applies quantitative analysis to find out theconstraints on element ordering of English and Chinese coordinate noun-nouncompounds.
This thesis adopts the following two criteria to screen the English and Chinesecoordinate noun-noun compounds.First,the two morphemes that consist of acompound have equal status at the grammatical level;that is to say,there is no prioritybetween the two morphemes.Second,both of the two morphemes that form acompound are nouns.It is worth noting that some morphemes belong to more thanone part of speech.In order to ensure the accuracy of the data collected,the lexicalmeaning and the part of speech of such morphemes are ascertained according to theirannotations in the Oxford English Dictionary and Modern Chinese Dictionary.Take“报刊”,a Chinese coordinate compound,as an example,the morpheme“报”can beused as a noun,which means“newspaper”,“telegram”and“news”;it can also beused as a verb,which means“repay”,“reply”and“revenge”.In addition,themorpheme“刊”can also be used as a noun and a verb.When it is used as a noun,itmeans“publication”;and when it is used as a verb,it refers to“carve”,“revise”and“publish”.According to the Modern Chinese Dictionary,the meaning of“报刊”is“newspaper and journal”.Judging from its annotation,“报”and“刊”are bothinvolved with being used as nouns in the compound“报刊”,and the two morphemesare connected by“and”,which suggests that they have a coordinate relationship.Accordingly,“报刊”belongs to coordinate noun-noun compounds,thus it is includedin the statistics.
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Previous Studies on English Coordinate Compounds
Study shows English N-N compounds accounts for a large proportion in Englishcompounds(Wang,2001:139).Additionally,it is the most productive form inword-formation(Algeo,1991).However,the number of coordinate compounds inEnglish is very small(Pan,1997).Perhaps just because of this,there are a largenumber of studies on English compounds,but only a few on English coordinatecompounds.And most of them focus on the definition and classification.
2.1.1 The Definition of English Coordinate Compounds
From the perspective of Haspelmath(2007),the term coordination refers tosyntactic constructions in which two or more units of the same type are combined intoa large unit and still have the same semantic relations with other surrounding elements.From the definition of coordination,it can be concluded that coordinate compoundsare the compounds formed by the syntactic structure of coordination.When it comesto the definition of coordinate compounds,many scholars have given their opinions.Bauer(2008)labeled coordinate compounds with term“dvandva”,which is from theSanskrit grammar.Bauer discusses the way that traditional Western linguists use“dvandva”in compounds,gives type classification based on the analysis of languagedescription,and distinguishes“dvandva”from some types that are similar to“dvandva”but do not belong to the same category.Olsen(2000:908)definescoordinate compounds as compounds built of constituents that share the same statusas“dvandva”compounds.However,Walchli(2005:8)holds that coordinate compounds are not“dvandva”at all.From the perspective of Walchli,two coordinateconstituents maintain their respective identities in the real“dvandva”,but coordinatecompounds only have a new integrated identity.
2.2 Previous Studies on Chinese Coordinate Compounds
Ding(2004)believes that coordinate word-building and subordinateword-building are the two earliest and most productive word formation methods in thePre-Qin Dynasty.According to the statistics of Li(2011),in Ancient Chinese,coordinate compounds accounted for 38.4%of the total number of compounds.InMedieval Chinese,the number of coordinate compounds surpassed the number ofsubordinate compounds,becoming the most productive structure that occupies 48.6%of the total number of compounds.In Proto-Mandarin Chinese and Modern Chinese,this proportion is 18.5%and 13.7%respectively.It can be seen that the number ofChinese coordinate compounds is huge.Chinese coordinate compounds are usedfrequently,have a strong power of generation and are always very productive.Coordinate compounds are a very important category of modern Chinese,so theresearch findings on coordinate compounds are also very plentiful.
2.2.1 The Definition of Chinese Coordinate Compounds
Zhu(1982)points out that coordinate compounds are only made up of two itemsand can not be extended.In addition,the grammatical function of a coordinatecompound is not necessarily consistent with that of its constituents;and the structuralmeaning of coordinate compounds is not a simple addition of the meaning of its twoelements.Huang and Liao(2017)define that copulative compounds,which are alsocalled coordinate compounds,are composed of two root words with the same,nearlythe same,related or opposite meanings.Wang(2011)proposes that coordinatecompounds are solidified into words by the combined form of coordinate phrases ormorphemes.
Chapter Three Optimality Theory................................16
3.1 Optimality Theory and Its Fundamentals.........................16
3.1.1 The Architecture of Optimality Theory.................................17
3.1.2 The Working Mechanism of Optimality Theory...................................18
Chapter Four Phonological Constraints on Element Ordering in English andChinese Coordinate Noun-Noun Compounds...........................22
4.1 Phonological Constraints on Element Ordering in English CoordinateNoun-Noun Compounds......................................22
4.1.1 Syllable Number Constraint...................................23
4.1.2 Stress Constraint........................................24
Chapter Five Semantic Constraints on Element Ordering in English and ChineseCoordinate Noun-Noun Compounds................................38
5.1 Semantic Constraints on Element Ordering in English Coordinate Noun-NounCompounds........................................38
5.1.1 Temporal Iconicity Constraint......................................39
5.1.2 Experiential Closeness Constraint......................................40
Chapter Six Contrastive Analysis of Constraints Hierarchyon Element Ordering in English and Chinese CoordinateNoun-Noun Compounds
6.1 Phonological Constraints Hierarchy
The phonological constraints restricting the element ordering of English andChinese coordinate noun-noun compounds have been tested in Chapter Four,and thissection aims to hierarchically rank them and measure the number of coordinatenoun-noun compounds that meet phonological constraints hierarchy.
6.1.1 Phonological Constraints Hierarchy in English Coordinate Noun-NounCompounds
After the validity of each phonological constraint is determined,it can be seenthat only FCCSWR plays a role in the element ordering of English coordinatenoun-noun compounds.The intensity of FCCSWR is shown in the following figure:
It can be seen from the table that,among the compounds whose morphemes havea different number of final constraints,the proportion that FCCSWR plays a role is60.8%.Given that there is only one effective phonological constraint on elementordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds,there is no need to comparethe hierarchical order of the eight phonological constraints that are tested.The numberof coordinate noun-noun compounds that meet the phonological constraint is 113.Among the rest 211 compounds,73 compounds violate the phonological constraintand 138 compounds are not restricted by the phonological constraint.In summary,theproportion of compounds that meet the phonological constraint is 34.9%,theproportion of compounds that violate the phonological constraint is 22.5%,and theproportion of compounds that are not restricted by the phonological constraint is42.6%.The reason why there are compounds that do not meet the phonologicalconstraint is that some constraints at other levels also affect the element ordering ofcoordinate noun-noun compounds.
Chapter Seven Conclusion
7.1 Major Findings
Fifteen constraints on element ordering of English coordinate noun-nouncompounds and seven constraints on element ordering of Chinese coordinatenoun-noun compounds are tested on 324 English coordinate noun-noun compoundsand 639 Chinese coordinate noun-noun compounds in the thesis.
At the phonological level,eight constraints(Syllable Number,Stress,InitialConsonants Complexity,Final Consonants Complexity,Vowel Length,InitialConsonant Obstruency,Final Consonant Obstruency and Vowel Quality)that mayrestrict the element ordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds and fourconstraints(Tone,Initial Consonant Type,Vowel Length and Vowel Tongue Position)that may restrict the element ordering of Chinese coordinate noun-noun compoundsare tested under the working mechanism of OT.The robust evidence shows that onlyFCCSWR restricts the element ordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds,and that ToneSWR,ICTSWR and VLSWL restrict the element ordering of Chinesecoordinate noun-noun compounds,whose hierarchical order is ToneSWR>ICTSWR>VLSWL.It can be seen that the English and Chinese coordinatenoun-noun compounds have different phonological constraints restricting theirelement ordering.
At the semantic level,seven constraints(Temporal Iconicity,ExperientialCloseness,Superiority,Profession,Property,Kinship and Characteristic Activity)thatmay constrain the element ordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds andthree constraints(Temporal Iconicity,Experiential Closeness and Superiority)thatmay constrain the element ordering of Chinese coordinate noun-noun compounds aretested under the working mechanism of OT.The statistical results show thatKinshipSWR,TempSWL,SuperSWL and ProfessionSWL restrict the elementordering of English coordinate noun-noun compounds,whose hierarchical order cannot be determined.
reference(omitted)