Literature Review of English and Chinese Quasi―affixes.docVIP

Literature Review of English and Chinese Quasi―affixes 　　【Abstract】Quasi-affixes， which are common both in modern English and Chinese， are a continuum of word-building elements from content words to prototypical affixes. In this paper， a number of linguists research findings of English and Chinese quasi-affixes are analyzed in detail. 【Key words】Literature Review； English； Chinese Quasi-affixes 1. Introduction In modern English and Chinese， some particular words attract a great deal of linguists attention， for example， “after-” in the front of afterthought， afterglow， aftereffect； “-sounding” at the back of odd-sounding， funny-sounding， archaic-sounding； ling- （零-） in lingjuli （零距?x）， lingwuran （零污染）， lingxiaoyi （零效益）； -chong （-虫） in wangchong （网虫）， shuchong （书虫）， chanchong （馋虫） and so forth. It is quite controversial on the definition of such items as “after-， -sounding， ling- and ?Cchong”. They are called quasi-affixes. 2. Previous Studies of English Quasi-affixes 2.1 Bussmanns Account The definition of English quasi-affixes is claimed explicitly by Bussmann （1996：10）. According to him， “the fact that some morphemes form semantic classes onto themselves indicates a transition from free morpheme status to affix status， for instance， “?Cworks” in fire+works， water+works， road+works， and such transitional affix-like elements are called quasi-affixes”. However， he does not provide a further analysis of them. 2.2 Bauers Account Bauer （1983：35） postulates that the diachronic passage of a lexeme to a suffix is much more common. He illustrates it by using some examples of the German suffix “?Cheit”， the French suffix “?Cment”， and the English suffixes “?Cdom”， “-hood” and “?Cly”. He assumes that German “?Cheit” and English “?Chood” which go back to a lexeme meaning “condition， rank” are cognate and that French “?Cment” is etymologically derived from Latin mentem “a mind” and that English suffixes “?Cdom” and “?Cly” go back to Old English doom “j