Morphological processes in the mandarin nominal domain

This thesis examines several word-formation processes in modern Mandarin Chinese and compares the functions and the usages of some Mandarin morphological elements with various Indo-European roots and affixes. The main purpose of this work is to show that, despite the common belief, Mandarin Chinese has morphological processes and the elements used in word-formation have the same structure and the same triggers of several forms found in the morphology of Italian, Spanish, English, German and Dutch. Our analysis considers exclusively Mandarin nouns and principally concentrates on twosyllable words. More specifically, we focus on the morphological aspects and on the functions of three bound elements, (z-zi), (ér-r) and (tóu/tou) and on their involvement in two morphological processes, compounding and derivation. Concerning the process of compounding, these three elements are nominal roots with a lexical meaning and cannot be used alone (they are “bound” morphemes) but only in combination with other roots in order to form a (free) compound-form. With the intention of explaining the usage of these bound roots in the modern lexicon we posit that they derive from ancient free forms which became bound in an uncertain stage of the language. We also point out their tendency of retaining their phonological aspects (i.e., their tone) and of being very productive in the creation of new words, especially technical and scientific terms. In addition, on the grounds of the analyses conducted by Sproat and Shih (1996) and by Packard (2000) we argue for some similarities between Mandarin bound roots and a group of Indo-European bound words which we refer to as “semi-words” (or as semi-parole by adopting the definition and the analysis proposed by Scalise, 1984, 1994); an example is the semi-word –graph– in the English word graphology. We propose that Mandarin and European bound roots are similar in the frequency, in the distribution and in the development of the compounding process they take part to. We support this idea by showing that both Mandarin bound roots and English semi-words (as well as Italian semiparole) have an old origin, both are still productive, both are nowadays used not as free but as bound forms to create new free words. Moreover, both their original old meanings can change according to new and more technical contexts and to their frequency. Finally we state that even though Mandarin bound roots and European semi-words are bound morphemes they are not “real affixes” (i.e., bound elements with a grammatical function) and behave more like content words with a lexical meaning (i.e., like constituents in complex words).