A Compare of Chinese and English Compounds.doc

A Compare of Chinese and English Compounds Abstract Composition (or compounding) is one of the most important word-formation methods in both contemporary English and Chinese, the other methods being derivation and conversion in English while being simple word and abbreviation in Chinese．The words which arc formed by composition (or compounding) are called compounds．In the development of English and Chinese there seems to be a trend by using compounds．Compounds playa decisive role in English and Chinese literature and pervade everyday life．Therefore these phenomena provide large quantity of examples and contrastive possibility between the 2 languages． Based on a review of lexicology and contrastive linguistic studies on compounds，this paper attempts to provide a comprehensive discussion of compounds and make a contrastive analysis of them．The features of compounds are shown in various aspects：morphological feature，phonological feat life, semantic feature and syntactic feature．Besides，comparison is also made from a cognitive point of view．By observing many examples, we try to illustrate some similarities and difference between compounds in English and Chinese. The thesis is to present a general characteristics of compounds shared by the two languages, which have 2 or more bases, have special stress mode, have complex meaning and have different kinds of structures． Compounds in Chinese，however, can appear in various forms and involves a much broader field than compounds in English。 一、The classification of compounds in English In terms of part-of-speech，the classifications of compounds include： compound nouns：deadline, handbook driveway； compound adjectives：world-famous，bloodthirsty, dog-tired； compound verbs：nickname, outline，spotlight； compound pronouns：another, something, anybody, myself； compound pronouns：another, something, anybody，myself； compound conjunctions：whenever, whereas； compound prepositions：alongside，outside, throughout； compound numerals：twenty-five, n