| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立新竹教育大學 === 臺灣語言與語文教育研究所 === 96 === This thesis studies the word formation processes of the Truku language spoken in Dumung and Tkijig Tribes located in Sioulin Township, Hualien County. Four word formation processes, including compounding, derivation, reduplication, and functional shift, are discussed.
Chapter one aims to provide background knowledge about Truku, including geographic distribution, a grammatical sketch and literature review. Chapter two discusses the forms, types and meanings of compounding. The two concepts “perspective taking” and “prominence principle” in cognitive semantics are adopted to explain the variances in compound formation among different speakers. We find that compounds are mostly used to form nouns for expressing new things or new concepts. Some compounds are also found to reflect the relationship between language and culture. Chapter three deals with derivational word-formation, and reduplication, which is hold to be affixational in nature, is included. First of all, the affixes, including prefixes, suffixes and infixes are presented. In terms of quantity, prefixes outnumber suffixes and infixes. With regard to the relationship between form and meaning, labor division (especially for focus affixes), interaction and polysemous phenomena are found. Turning to reduplication, on the base of phonology, Truku reduplication can be divided into two types ─ CV- and CVCV-, and is found to display the function of nominalization (to form instrumental nouns) and verbalization (to designate distribution). To end this chapter, the interaction between compounding, derivation and reduplication is discussed and it is found that they apply in the order of “derivation > reduplication > compounding”. Chapter four discusses functional shift. In terms of semantic development, the four principles ─ metonymy, metaphor, specialization, and generalization seem to come into play, and among them metonymy play the major role. Examining how functions are changed to form new words or how new meanings are developed leads us not only to perceive the connection between language and culture but also to find out how language changes along with the environments to meet the need of communication. Chapter five concludes the discussion and presents direction for future studies.
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