A Comparative Study of the Lexicalization of English and Chinese “Say” Type Verbs
英汉“说”类动词的词汇化对比研究
王均艳
英汉语中都有丰富的“说” 类动词。“说” 类动词是指人们用不同的说话方式表达思想的 一类动词，或指在不同的情景下人们表达思想 的动词。 “说”类动词具有同一语义特征:开口说话或开 口发出声音。
Word-formation Compounding and derivation are the major ways of word-formation in both English and Chinese. Indeed, word-formation is an important way of vocabulary enlargement in the development of languages.
Comparison of lexicalizations of "say" tye lexicalization is discussed from two perspectives: lexicalization degree and lexicalization pattern. As to lexicalization degree, it can be extended into two aspects, morphological features that explain the inner structures of simple words, and wordformation which can show how compound words are coming into being. It also put forward the lexicalization patterns of both English and Chinese "say' type verbs, which are compared with those of previous researchers.
The Percentage of Simple Words and Complex Words
From the table we can see that the derivative occupy the least number, there are three words: foretell, overstate and retell in English, and there isn't any derivative word in Chinese. English is an inflectional language, and one feature of the inflectional language is that it is rich in affixes (Xu, 2002). But in "say" type verbs semantic field, there are not many affixes used to form “say” type verbs. There are some reasons that will be discussed in the following section. The majority of the “say” type verbs are simple words, occupying 97.7% of the total, and the majority in Chinese “say” type verbs semantic field is compounds, occupying 85.6% of the total number.
simple words and compounds
All the "say" type verbs can be divided into two types: simple words and complex words which include compounds and derivatives.
There are fifteen types of compounding in details. They are as follows: (1) Prep+Prep type: throughout, within; (2) Adj+N type: deadline, blueprint; (3) V+N type: crybaby, tell-tale; (4) Adv+N type: outbreak, downfall; (5) Adj +Adj type: dark-blue, bitter-sweet; (6) V+V type: drop-kick, dive-bomb; (7) Adv+V type: downfall, outbreak; (8) N +Adj type: life-long, thread-bare; (9) V+Adj type: drop-dead; (10) Adj+V type: quick-change; (11) Adv+Adj type: deep-dark; (12) V+Adv type: sit-in, feedback; (13) N+N type: girlfriend, homework; (14) N+V type: sunset, man-made; (15) Prep+N type: off-camera, on-scene.
《朗文当代高级英语词典》和《现代汉语词典》 中包含“说”这一核心语义的“说”类动词，其中 英语一共220个，汉语334个。通过对比分析，从统 计的数量上看，汉语“说”类动词比英语“说”类 动词丰富，多出114个。 从词化程度上看，英语“说”类动词的97.7%是单 纯词，而汉语只有14.4%，另外85.6%是合成词，因 此英语“说”类动词的词化程度高; 同时我们从形 态、构词和文化方面探讨了造成这些差异的原因。 从词化模式看，英汉语“说”类动词的词化模式 均为: 动作+方式/原因+Xo
Morphological features
English
Indo-European language derivational and inflectional language
Chinese
Sino-Tibetan language insular language
simple words, compounds and derivatives