Chinese Morphology: Understanding Vocabulary Formation

Topics in Chinese Linguistics: Introduction to Chinese Topic 4: Vocabulary

Basic concepts • Morpheme: A morpheme is a smallest meaningful unit in a language. It may be lexical or rammatical: 女 nǚ lexical，子 zǐ lexcical or grammtical，

Bound vs. free morphemes: • Free: morphemes that can be uttered independently and used freely. 人 rén person. • Bound: always occur in conjunction with another morpheme. 子 -zǐ as in 兒子 érzi.

Prefix: • Any affix that appears before a free morpheme. un-happy, 老師 lǎo-shī • Suffix: • Any affix that appears at the end of a word. work-s, 兒子 ér-zi

Derivational and inflectional affixes: • Derivational affixes produce a word; happy => un-happy, work=> work-er, • Inflectional affixes attach grammatical meanings to the word. work=>work-ing

Characters • A Chinese character is a morphemes (either free or bound) • A character is not necessarily a word. 我 wǒ is a word 們 men is not a word, but a morpheme, a suffix. • Chinese words mostly are two-morpheme words. 中國 Zhōngguó 地圖 dìtú 學生 xuésheng

Words: has a specific meaning and can be used freely. • Monosyllabic words • 人 rén person • 吃 chī to eat • 我 wǒ I M • Disyllabic words • 鼻子 bízi nose • 桌子 zhuōzi table • 官兒 guānr an official • 老師 lǎoshī teacher

老虎 lǎohǔ tiger • 第一 dìyī first • 人人 rénrén everybody • 黑板 hēibǎn blackboard • 圖書館 túshūguǎn library • Note: • A Chinese word contains at least one morpheme. • The word boundary is hard to detect in Chinese, not marked by spaces between the words like English.

Word classes • Full words vs. empty (functional) words 實詞虛詞 • All grammatical words are empty (functional) words. The rest words are full (lexical) words.

Full words • nouns 名詞 • verbs 動詞 • adjectives 形容詞 • nemerals 數詞 • measures 量詞 • pronouns- personal and demonstratives 代詞

Empty words • adverbs 副詞只，漸漸，很，不，沒，最 • prepositions 介詞在，上 • conjunctions 連詞和，而且 • particles 助詞的，嗎，吧，得 • interjections 感嘆詞啊， • onomatopoeia 象聲詞嘩啦，

Word formation • Derivation: morpheme plus preffix or suffix • prefixes: • 老- lǎo • 老師 lǎoshī teacher • 老鼠 lǎoshǔ mouse • 第- dì • 第一 dìyī first • 第二 dìèr second • 阿- ā • 阿妹 āmèi sister • 阿大 ādà first brother

suffixes: • -子zǐ • 桌子zhuòzi table • 椅子 yǐzi chair • -兒ér • 花兒 huār flower • 飯館兒fànguǎr restaurant

-家jiā • 作家zuòjiā writer • 畫家huàjiā painter • -主義zhǔyì • 共產主義 gòngchǎnzhǔyì communism • 資本主義 zīběnzhǔyì capitalism • -學xué • 語言學 yǔyánxué linguistics • 物理學 wùlǐxué physics

infixes: • 胡里胡塗 húlǐ-hútú • 古里古怪 gǔlǐ-gǔguài • 吃不消 chī-bu-xiāo • 來不及 lái-bu-jí • 對不起 duì-bu-qǐ

Compounding • Coordinating 並列： • 父母聲音大小買賣 • fù-mǔ shēng-yīng dà-xiǎo mǎi-mài • father-mother voice-sound big-small buy-sell

Subordinating 偏正： • modifier and modified 修飾與被修飾： • 電話火車熱愛晚會 • diàn-huà huǒ-chē rè-ài wǎn-huì • electric-speech fire-vehicle hot-love evening-meeting

Subordinating 偏正： • subject-predicative 主謂： • 地震，頭疼，眼花， • dì-zhèn, tóu-téng, yǎn-huā • earth-vibrate, head-hurt, eye-blur

Subordinating 偏正： • verb-object 動賓： • 吃飯，放心，傷心，吹牛 • chī-fàn, fàng-xīn, shāng-xīn, chuī-niú • eat-rice, put down-heart, hurt-heart, blow-cow

Subordinating 偏正： • verb-complement 動補： • 打破，放大，改正，說明 • dǎ-pò, fàng-dà, gǎi-zhèng, shuō-míng • hit-break, make-large, change-correct, state-clear

Reduplication 重疊 • Verbs 動詞： • 等等，看看，想想，說說 • děng-děng, kàn-kàn, xiǎng-xiǎng, shuō-shuō • wait, look, think, say

Nounds 名詞： • 爸爸，媽媽，人人，天天，家家戶戶 • bà-ba, mā-ma, rén-rén, tiān-tiān, jiājiā-hùhù • father, mother, person-person, day-day, family-family-household-houesehold

Adjectives 形容詞： • AABB： • 高高興興，干干淨淨 • gāogāo-xìngxìng, gāngān-jìngjìng • high-spirited, dry-clean • ABB： • 紅通通，白茫茫，綠油油，黑乎乎，髒兮兮 • hóng-tōngtōng, bái-mángmáng, lǜ-yóuyóu, hēi-hūhū, zāng-xīxī • red-thorough, white-vast expanse, green-lush, black-dusky, dirt-xixi

AAB： • Adverbs 副詞： • 慢慢地﹐快快地﹐好好地 • mànmànde, kuàikuàide, hǎohǎode • slow-slow-de, fast-fast-de, good-good-de

Synonyms and antonyms • Synonyms – words with the exact same meaning • speech – • 演講，講演 • yánjiǎng, jiǎngyǎn • perform-speak, speak-perform • bike – • 自行車，腳踏車 • zìxíngchē, jiǎotàchē • self-move-vehicle, foot-peddle-vehicle • Vitamin – • 維他命，維生素 • wéitāmìng, wéishēngsù • maintain his life, maintain life elements

Synonyms – words with a similar meaning • to take • 拿－取 • ná-qǔ • to present (a gift) • 贈－送 • zèng, sòng

to eat • 吃－食 • chī, shí • to attemp • 打算－企圖 • dǎsuàn, qǐtú • to be proud of, to be arrogant • 驕傲－自豪－自滿 • jiāo’ào, zìháo, zìmǎn

Antonyms – words with opposite meanings • 大－小，長－短，高－低，好－壞 • dà-xiǎo, cháng-duǎn, gāo-dī, hǎo-huài • big-small, long-short, high-low, good-bad • 浪費－節約，吝嗇－慷慨，痛苦－快樂，謙虛－驕傲 • làngfèi-jiéyuē, lìnsè-kāngkǎi, tòngkǔ-kuàilè, qiānxū-jiāo’ào • waste-save, stingy-generous, pain and suffer-happy, modest-arrogant

春－秋，黑－白，黑－紅？ • chūn-qiū, hēi-bái, hēi-hóng • spring-fall, black-white, black-red?

Words that form a continuum • 冰－寒－冷－涼－溫－暖－熱－燙 • bīng-hán-lěng-liáng-wēn-nuǎn-rè-tàng • icy-cold-cool-warm-hot

Hyponyms • Words within a same category, with a hierarchy. The words within a category under another word are hyponyms of the word at the upper level. • Animal • dog cat pig ...

Idioms • Four character idioms chéngyǔ 四字成語 • 狐假虎威 hú-jià-hǔ-wēi • the fox assuming the majesty of tiger – borrowing the power to do evil • 一鳴驚人 yì-míng-jīng-rén • to make one’s mark at the first shot, to amaze the world with a single brilliant feat • 南轅北轍 nán-yuán-běi-zhè • to go south by driving the chariot north, means and ends opposed, practice diametrically opposed to preaching. • *Chinese chéngyǔ may function as nouns or verbs.

Proverbs yànyǔ 諺語 • Proverbs are sentences with classical origin or a special philosophical meaning or implications. • 活到老﹐學到老。 • Huó dào lǎo, xué dào lǎo. • Learn as long as you live.

Xiòuyǔ 歇後語 • A special expression composed by two parts. The first part is a statement or a description. The second part is the essence of the expression. • 老鼠過街﹐人人喊打。 • Lǎoshǔ guō jiē, rénrén hǎn dǎ. • When rats are running across the street, every body yells: “Kill them!” (to be chased by all like a rat running across the street.)

和尚打傘-無法無天。 • Héshang dǎ sǎn – wú fǎ wú tiān. • A monk holds an umbrella – there is no hair (rhymed with ‘law’) and sky.

Assignment • Unit 4 homework due 10/28 • See course page Assignment • http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/380/380homework4.doc

Chinese Morphology: Understanding Vocabulary Formation