The meaning-making and semiotic value of Chinese words: a contextual perspective

Abstract

Abstract From the contextual perspective of functional linguistics, this paper emphasizes the role of two types of extra-word context – situational context and structural context – in the meaning-making process of Chinese words. We found that if a word is embedded with situational context, such as the X+lǐng (领) category, the meaning-making process of the word needs to force the word-forming components to be semantically transferred in the situational context. If a word is embedded with event context (i.e. special situational context), such as the X+mén (门) category, the meaning-making of the word needs to fill the semantics of the word-forming components in the context of the event. Words rely on structural context to construct meaning. If a word contains an explicit and marked structural context, such as yǒu (有)+N, then the meaning-making of the word is also explicit, and there is no need to assign structural meaning to any one of its components. If a word contains an explicit structural context, with entry-qualified schema, such as X+N causee , then the meaning-making of the word is also explicit. However, because of the relative vagueness of the grammatical and semantic nature of the components, the structural meaning tends to be transferred to a certain component, and the construction provides sufficient structural context for its new meaning-making. Based on the above analysis, this article constructs the meaning-making procedure of Chinese words and explores the semiotic values of context dependence, hierarchy, variability, and sociality that Chinese words show in the process of meaning-making.