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In modern Chinese, yǒu is a most frequently used verb, only behind shì(是), in both of written and spoken language. On the one hand, it is a very simple word which can be seen in different articles and heard in numerous dialogues in daily life. On the other hand, it is also a very complicated word due to its wide implication and complex collocation both of which are extended and changed over time. Owing to this condition, in history a lot of Chinese scholars and researchers had made contribution to the exploration of yǒu, as well as sentences which include this word. Among these researches, most of them are focused on the word’s use in Chinese language in term of its grammar and they can hardly reach a consensus. For example, the lexical category of yǒu and the definition of yǒu-sentence are still under dispute. What’s more, really few researchers have tried to combine the research of its usages in Chinese and its English translation and that is exactly what this dissertation will further explore.
1.2 Aim and Methodology of Research
It is generally true that yǒu is widely used in almost all aspects of daily life and careful and systematical research of this word and its English translation can be meaningful and constructive for the study of other Chinese words. However, nowadays, domestic researches about yǒu are mostly focused on its grammatical category instead of semantics or pragmatics, let alone the combination of meaning and translation. To make up for the lack of this kind of study, this dissertation is aiming at gathering and classifying the different usages of yǒu on the basis of former research results and exploring the regular rule of its English translation according to its usages.
This research can be pided into three steps. First, it is necessary to confirm the lexical category of yǒu and the definition of yǒu-sentence. Since there are numerous and various usages of yǒu, it is impossible for us to learn all of its use or collocation. Therefore, this first step can set a scope of what should be learned and avoid the trouble caused by ambiguous conceptions and a wide range. The second step is to gather enough materials and information about the meaning and usages of yǒu in modern Chinese. Then for the sake of further studies, these different kinds of yǒu need to be classified into several groups. Finally, with the help of a bilingual corpus, the corresponding English translation of each group of yǒu can be found and analyzed. On the basis of large amount of data, the author will try to explore whether there exist connection between the usages of the word and its translation.
1.3 Layout of the Dissertation
This dissertation is pided into five chapters. Chapter One is a brief introduction to this study, including research background, the aim and methodology of research and the structure of this dissertation. In Chapter Two, Prototype Theory, a branch of Cognitive Linguistics, will be introduced as the theoretical framework of this study. Chapter Three is an overview of literature. The definition of yǒu-sentence and the lexical category of yǒu will be confirmed in this part on the basis of other researchers’ conclusions. Chapter Four aims at gathering and classifying the usages of yǒu in accordance to its meaning. Chapter Five mainly concerns with the English translation of yǒu on the basis of its meaning analysis.
2 Theoretical Framework of the Dissertation
In this dissertation, the Prototype Theory, a branch of Cognitive Linguistics, will be introduced as the theoretical framework.
An important concept in the Prototype Theory is categorization. It refers to the process that people pide category. In the Embodied Philosophy and Cognitive Linguistics, categorization represents the activity that people, based on interactive experience, summarize and pide the attributes of external things, events and phenomena. Through this process or activity, people can set up a structure of the world and change it from unordered to ordered. As the result of categorization, category is stored in a certain way in people’s mind and it functions as the basis of all subjects.