The Determination of Morphemes in Chinese Words and a Special Type of Affix Morphemes in Chinese

Abstract

When the structure of Chinese bisyllabic words is examined by using the substitution method, three kinds of results can be obtained, namely, "morpheme+morpheme", "morpheme+syllable" and "syllable+syllable". Whether the result of "morpheme+syllable" is reasonable or not, there have been different opinions in the academic circles. In modern Chinese, morpheme refers to the smallest combination of sound and meaning, and the feature of "smallest unit" of morpheme determines that a morpheme cannot contain other independent morphemes. According to the traditional point of view, "butterfly" as a whole is regarded as a morpheme, and "蝶(dié)"  of "蝴蝶(húdié,butterfly) "is also regarded as a separate morpheme, which is obviously not valid at the same time. Similarly, such a contradiction exists in the word formation of words like "苹果(píngguǒ,apple) " and "蟾蜍(chánchú,toad)" . Therefore, on the basis of the study of such special words in Chinese, this paper organises the composition forms of Chinese bisyllabic words, puts forward the principle of scientific division of morpheme composition in Chinese vocabulary, and considers a group of special syllables, such as "蝴(hú)", "螃(páng)" and so on, as a type of special affix morphemes, pointing out that "蝴(hú)" is a special class of morpheme. It is argued that a group of special syllables such as "蝴(hú)" and "螃(páng)" is a special kind of affix morpheme, and it is pointed out that the substitution method and the residual method should be combined and applied when discriminating morphemes in Chinese words.