What is a Chinese word? Lexical constructionalization in Chinese

Abstract

The Chinese language is defined on the basis of Chinese characters, which stabilize monosyllabic root morphemes across the countless varieties. As subsyllabic linguistic forms such as derivational morphology can hardly be represented by Chinese characters, compounding is preferred over derivation in Chinese. Compounds do not have fixed word boundaries. The wordhood of compounds pertains to the level of conventionality in language use, which is a continuum instantiated by synchronic gradience and diachronic gradualness. A perennial archaizing aesthetics further complicates the determination of Chinese words by preserving classical linguistic forms in formal and literary writing, thus making every synchronic stratum heterogeneous by blurring the distinction between historical strata. Therefore, the boundaries of words have always been fluid in native speakers’ mental lexicon.