A Cognitive Study of the Origination and Historical Evolution of"Se Cai"and"Cai Se"
"Se Cai"and"Cai Se"are a pair of inverse morphemes words in modern Chinese.They have the same mor-phemes but their morphemes are reciprocal."Cai Se"appeared before"Se Cai".At first,"Cai Se"was formed by coordinating two near-semantic morphemes of"Cai"and"Se"into a noun.However,when"Cai"as an adjective component largely combined with nominal components to form attributive noun phrases causing pragmatic analogy,and when a single morpheme of"Cai"could bear the whole meaning of the disyllable word"Cai Se","Cai Se"gradually evolved into an attributive noun structure.Under the influ-ence of metonymy,the use of"Cai Se"as an adjective comes into being.On the basis of filling in the vacant sememe of"Cai Se","Se Cai"was reanalyzed and became a coordinate noun in the Ming and Qing dynasties,and derived abstract metaphorical meaning under the influence of metaphor,which is still used today.
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