The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey

by Po-Ching; Yip

• ISBN13: 9780415151740
• ISBN10: 0415151740
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-13
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Chinese Lexicon is a detailed study of the words and word combinations used in modern Chinese. Yip Po-Ching defines the general properties of a language's lexicon, or vocabulary, prior to a thorough discussion of the organizational features of the Chinese lexicon. Comparisons are made between Chinese and English, highlighting the similarities and differences between the two lexicons. This fascinating work examines the relationships between word and meanings, and demonstrates the ability of language to combine continuity and change. It surpasses the scope of a dictionary and reveals the systematic nature of vocabulary. Features include: a wealth of language examples clear comparisons between Chinese and English Chinese characters and pinyin romanization throughout a comprehensive index. The Chinese Lexicon surpasses the scope of a dictionary and reveals the systematic nature of vocabulary. It will prove an invaluable resource for allstudents and teachers of Chinese.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Abbreviations	x
Introduction	1	(1)
Lexicon in General	1	(14)
The Chinese Lexicon in Brief	15	(5)
The Phonological Make-up of the Chinese Lexicon	20	(15)
The Syllabic Structure	20	(1)
The Consonants	21	(1)
The Vowels	22	(2)
Initials and Finals	24	(1)
Pinyin Orthography	25	(1)
Tones and Tone Sandhi	26	(2)
Word Stress	28	(2)
Erisation and Sound Assimilation	30	(1)
Dialectal Interference	31	(1)
Syllables versus Words	31	(4)
The Graphetic Composition of the Chinese Lexicon	35	(22)
The Basic Monostrokes	35	(2)
The Stylised Patterns	37	(2)
Traditional Ways of Character Formation	39	(3)
New Formative Devices in Simplified Characters	42	(1)
The Radicals	43	(6)
The Phonetics	49	(3)
Picto-phonetic Arrangement	52	(2)
Picto-phonetic Variants	54	(1)
Characters Old and New	55	(1)
Stroke Sequence in Handwritten Characters	55	(1)
The Question of Homophony	56	(1)
Morphological Features of the Chinese Lexicon	57	(33)
Affixes for Human Nouns	59	(9)
Affixes for Non-human Nouns	68	(6)
Verbal Affixes	74	(2)
Adjectival Affixes	76	(1)
Adverbial Affixes	77	(2)
Numerical Prefixes	79	(1)
Pronominal Suffix men for Plural	80	(1)
Prepositional Suffixes	80	(1)
Conjunctional Suffixes	81	(1)
Negative Prefixes	81	(3)
Infixes	84	(1)
Parafixes	85	(1)
Supramorphological Processes	86	(4)
Syntactic Features of the Chinese Lexicon	90	(87)
Juxtapositional Type	93	(29)
Modificational Type	122	(13)
Governmental Type	135	(22)
Predicational Type	157	(11)
Complemental Type	168	(9)
Phonaesthetic Features of the Chinese Lexicon	177	(42)
Sound Imageries	180	(24)
Tone Imageries	204	(8)
Interjections	212	(1)
The Phonaesthetic Network	213	(6)
Rhetorical Features of the Chinese Lexicon	219	(46)
Metaphorical Comparison	219	(25)
Masquerading Expression	244	(5)
Aesthetic Forms of Speech	249	(8)
The Rhetorical Scheme of the Lexicon	257	(8)
Sense Relations of the Chinese Lexicon	265	(31)
Hyponymy	265	(7)
Polysemy	272	(4)
Synonymy	276	(8)
Antonymy	284	(8)
Meaning Structure in the Mononyms	292	(4)
Cultural and Socio-Political Features of the Chinese Lexicon	296	(31)
China's Historical Past	296	(4)
Chinese Views of the World	300	(4)
Chinese Ways of Life	304	(8)
Dominant Fields of Cultural and Scientific Interest	312	(10)
Neologisms	322	(5)
Loanwords in the Chinese Lexicon	327	(21)
A Brief History of Borrowing	327	(6)
Diverse Strategies of Borrowing	333	(13)
Concluding Remarks	346	(2)
Appendix: Intra- and Inter-lexical Strategies of the Chinese and English Lexicons	348	(21)
Phonetic	348	(2)
Phonaesthetic	350	(3)
Morphological	353	(2)
Syntactic	355	(2)
Semantic	357	(3)
Graphetic	360	(3)
Collocational	363	(1)
Stylistic	364	(2)
Cultural	366	(3)
Bibliography	369	(12)
Index	381