An Analysis of Chinese Four-Character Idioms Containing Numbers: Structural Patterns and Cultural Significance
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AN ANALYSIS OF CHINESE FOUR-CHARACTER IDIOMS CONTAINING NUMBERS: STRUCTURAL PATTERNS AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY TIMOTHY M. NALL DISSERTATION ADVISOR: DR. ELIZABETH M. RIDDLE BALL STATE UNIVERSITY MUNCIE, INDIANA MAY 2009 Abstract This dissertation explores the robust confluence of syntactic and cultural factors involved in the structure and content of chéngyǔ. It unpacks a number of structural tendencies in the data sample, and illuminates selected underlying cultural themes. The presence of syntactic and semantic parallelism within chéngyǔ, as an expression of the correlative Chinese philosophy of the wǔxíng (五行 ‗Five Phases‘ or ‗Five Elements‘ of the universe), in the dataset is a recurring point. Syntactic parallelism is demonstrated via chéngyǔ with invertible elements and by the overwhelming preference for syntactic parallelism, in particular the # N # N structure. Semantic parallelism is demonstrated via content words with related semantic fields or separable content words. The Chinese philosophical concepts of yīn and yáng are shown to have a clear impact on the use of numbers within chéngyǔ. Yīn and yáng are preferably arranged in balance with each other. If only one is present, however, then yáng is considered to be preferable over yīn. The interaction between the numbers within chéngyǔ has several pragmatic effects. For example, the combination of the numbers qī (七 'seven') and bā (八 'eight') is used to suggest disorder, untidiness or physical or emotional disturbance (Pellatt 2007:96). Bàn (半 ‗half‘) may be used in chéngyǔ to denote the meaning of ‗a proportion.‘ It also may be used together with yī (一 ‗one‘) to indicate ‗any at all‘ as well as a cluster of closely related concepts generally indicating ‗the existence of a small amount.‘ Numbers also often have the effect of highlighting the contrast between two content words. Some chéngyǔ have a clearcut syntactic analysis, others do not. This is due to their highly elliptical and idiomatic nature, the fact that many lexemes can fall into more than one word class, and the fact that chéngyǔ are frozen expressions that often preserve some grammatical structures from Classical Chinese. Additionally, chéngyǔ do include conceptual metaphors, from the standpoint of the conceptual theory of metaphor launched with Lakoff and Johnson (1980). ii Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my advisor Dr. Elizabeth M. Riddle for the guidance, support and encouragement throughout the years that I have been working with her. I am also very grateful to my dissertation committee members Dr. Mary Theresa Seig, Dr. Megumi Hamada and Dr. Jiansheng Yang for their insightful and valuable comments on the dissertation. The input and insights of four native speaker informants who assisted me in this dissertation is gratefully acknowledged. Three of these are Dr. Su Shu-Chin, Dr. Fan Chung-Ju (Tim Fan), and Dr. Yang Huei-Mei (Grace Yang). In particular, the native speaker to whom I owe the greatest debt is my beautiful wife, Shu Pin. Finally, I wish to express my thanks to God, for His kindness to the undeserving. iii Table of Contents Page Abstract ii Acknowledgments iii List of Figures V List of Tables vi Chapter 1: Introduction and rationale 1 1.1. Introduction and rationale 2 Chapter 2: Literature review 8 2.1. Regional significance of four-character idioms 9 2.2. Significance of chéngyǔ in Chinese culture 10 2.2.1. Creative and ritual language use 11 2.3. English-language literature on chéngyǔ 18 2.4. Distinguishing features of chéngyǔ 20 2.5. Chinese perspective on metaphor 25 2.6. Numerals and number mysticism in Chinese culture 29 2.7. Culture and cultural beliefs 31 Chapter 3: Methodology 33 3.1. Sources of Data 34 3.2. Methodology 35 Chapter 4: Data Presentation and Findings 43 4.1. Analysis of chéngyǔ by constituent numeric value 44 4.2. The form of chéngyǔ containing numbers 48 4.3. The distribution of numbers in chéngyǔ 60 4.3.1. Chéngyǔ containing only 1 number 60 4.3.2. Chéngyǔ containing two numbers 62 4.3.2.1. Doubling and tripling in chéngyǔ containing 2 numbers 65 4.3.2.2. Chéngyǔ containing two identical numbers 67 4.3.2.3. Chéngyǔ containing two numbers where N1 > N2 69 4.3.2.4. Chéngyǔ containing two numbers where N1 < N2 72 4.3.2.5. Yīn Yáng and the Five Phases 76 4.3.2.6. The combination of seven and eight 81 4.3.2.7. Highlighting contrast 85 4.3.2.8. Numbers used to show proportion 90 4.3.2.9. Content words with related semantic fields 91 4.3.2.10 Reduplicated content words 98 4.3.2.11. Separable content words 100 iv Table of Contents (cont’d) Page 4.3.3. The forms of chéngyǔ containing 3 numbers 102 4.3.4. Chéngyǔ containing 4 numeric characters 106 4.4. Special attributes of chéngyǔ 107 4.4.1. Grammatical structure of chéngyǔ with numbers 107 4.4.2. Invertible elements 111 4.4.3. The effect of ban (半 half) 114 4.4.4. Negation in chéngyǔ 119 4.5. Historical and cultural information 123 4.5.1.1. Historical incidents, practices or figures 124 4.5.1.2. Cultural concepts 129 4.5.1.2.1 Wealth and money 129 4.5.1.2.2. Luck and Success 132 4.5.1.2.3. Value of ‗Knowledge‘ 138 4.5.1.2.4. Concepts of ‗Longevity‘ and ‗Death‘ 141 4.5.1.2.5 Religious concepts 146 4.5.1.2.6. Politics, patriotism, government and war 151 4.5.1.2.7. Gender concepts in chéngyǔ 157 4.5.1.2.8. Body parts in chéngyǔ 163 4.5.1.2.9. Animals in chéngyǔ 166 4.6. Modern and ancient frequencies of chéngyǔ 169 Chapter 5: Conclusions 178 5.1 Conclusions 179 5.2 Implications 182 5.3 Limitations of Study 182 5.4 Suggestions for Further Research 183 References 184 Appendix One: Abbreviations 192 Appendix Two: Common correspondences and meanings 193 Appendix Three: Chéngyǔ contrasting 'one' and 'many' 195 Appendix Four: Chéngyǔ containing two numerals showing 196 proportion Appendix Five: Chéngyǔ containing zhī (之) 197 Appendix Six: Chéngyǔ reflecting historical information 199 v List of Figures Page Figure 1: Distribution of materials in the 41 Corpus of Centre of Chinese Linguistics vi List of Tables Table Page Table 1: The Five Elements in relation to five 28 other categories Table 2: The distribution of numbers within 44 chéngyǔ Table 3: Numbers occurring in chéngyǔ, ranked by total number of chéngyǔ in 46 which they occur Table 4: Distributions of the Forms 53 Table 5: Total count of numbers 59 Table 6: Form Comparisons among Chéngyǔ 60 with 1, 2 and 3 numbers. 6A: Chéngyǔ with one number 60 6B: Chéngyǔ with two numbers 60 6C: Chéngyǔ with three numbers 60 Table 7: The positions of numbers 61 Table 8: Summary of the distributions of 62 numbers Table 8: The positions of numbers in Chéngyǔ 62 Table 10: The values of numbers in chéngyǔ 64 Table 11: Instances of doubling the value 65 Table 12: Numbers in ‗N1 = N2‘ chéngyǔ 68 Table 13: Forms of ‗N1 = N2‘ chéngyǔ 68 Table 14: Forms of ‗N1 > N2‘ chéngyǔ 69 Table 15: Distribution of the Number 70 Collocations ‗N1 > N2‘ Table 16: The Forms of ‗N1 < N2‘ 72 Table 17: Distribution of the Number 74 Collocations ‗N1 < N2‘ Table 18: The yīn and yáng properties 79 Table 19: The yīn and yáng relationship 80 Table 20: Chéngyǔ containing seven and eight 82 Table 21: The highlighting effect of numbers 89 in chéngyǔ vii List of Tables (cont’d) Table Page Table 22: Proportion signaled by numbers 90 Table 23: Chéngyǔ containing two numbers 99 with reduplicated content words Table 24: Summary of Forms in chéngyǔ 104 Table 25: The distribution of numeric values 105 Table 26: Chéngyǔ containing 4 numbers 106 Table 27: The distribution of numeric values 107 in chéngyǔ containing four numbers Table 28: Forms of invertible chéngyǔ 113 Table 29: Symmetrical Forms 114 Table 30: The Forms of Chéngyǔ with 122 Negation Table 31: Chéngyǔ that mention body parts 165 Table 32: Animals in chéngyǔ containing 168 numbers Table 33: Top 20 chéngyǔ occurring in both the modern and ancient corpuses, by 170 ranking in the modern corpus Table 34: Top 20 chéngyǔ occurring in both the modern and ancient corpuses, by 172 ranking in the ancient corpus Table 35: Top 20 chéngyǔ occurring in the 174 modern corpus but not the ancient Table 36: Top 20 chéngyǔ occurring in the 176 ancient corpus but not the modern Table 37: Common correspondences and 193 meanings. viii Chapter 1 Introduction and rationale 1.1. Introduction and rationale Chinese culture is steeped in numbers and numerology, and is remarkable for its strong reliance on proverbs and idioms as discourse tools.i A specialized form of four-character idioms known as chéngyǔ (traditional Chinese: 成語 simplified Chinese: 成语, literally ―set phrases‖) is accorded high regard and high frequency of use in spoken and written Chinese. Chéngyǔ comprise nearly ninety per cent of Chinese idioms (Xu 2006: 108). Their metonymic allusions, tonal prosody and quadrisyllabic form reflect the influences of Classical Chinese literature and poetry. Similarly, numbers are freighted with special cultural significance and symbolism. In traditional Chinese cosmology, for example, numbers played a significant role in the creation of the universe. All odd numbers possess a masculine yáng (陽) nature, and all even numbers are yīn (陰), which assigns these numerals certain non-numeric properties, as well as asserting a categorial relationship based on shared characteristics between them and many other objects in the perceivable world: Every Chinese number from one to ten and beyond is redolent with negative or positive spiritual and symbolic associations by which… behavior may be consciously or unconsciously guided..