Semantic evolution at the microscopic level: the case of suoyi

Publication date: July 2019Source: Language Sciences, Volume 74Author(s): Xiaochen Li, Mingyou XiangAbstractThis paper investigates the underlying mechanisms of the semantic changes of the Chinese resultative conjunction suoyi(所以,’so’). Previous research mainly probed into the regularities and mechanisms of semantic changes at the macroscopic level, whereas relatively fewer studies have investigated the microscopic level of this issue due to the lack of theoretical models capable of capturing minute semantic differences. This research probes into the regularity and the mechanisms at the microscopic level of semantic changes. By drawing insights from frame semantics, lexical pragmatics and historical linguistics, this research closely examines the semantic evolution of suoyi. The results demonstrate that suoyi is the lexicalization of suo yi, whose two components, suo and yi, have undergone separate processes of changes before they meet. Each stage of this process consists of several microscopic changes in the word's semantic structure, which are caused by lexical rather than post-propositional pragmatic mechanisms. These findings elucidate the hitherto little-explored regularities and mechanisms at the microscopic level of semantic changes, which provides an approach complementary to previous studies.
Source: Language Sciences - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research