Transmission of Chinese yi one-item Idioms: A Linguistic Memetic - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transmission of Chinese yi ‘one’-item Idioms: A Linguistic Memetic Perspective

SHANG Mengya (Shangqiu University) ZHUANG Huibin (Henan University)

pImportance of the Topic pPrevious Studies pResearch Question pResearch Method pKey Terms pStructure of the Writing

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Contents

• 1. Importance of the Topic

Chinese idioms are the quintessence of Chinese language and culture. In the numerals, yi (one) is the smallest positive integer but the biggest number in

• philosophy. In Chinese idioms, the form of numeral yi

(one) is simple, but its meanings are various. The meanings of yi mainly include literal meaning “one”, for example, “一呼百应” (yī hū bǎi yìng “hundreds respond to a single call”) and functional meanings, “full, completeness”, for example, “一反常态” (yī fǎn cháng tài “be not one’s usual self”), “same, concentrated”, for example, “一心一意” (yī xīn yī yì “undivided attention”).

As a result, yi has been an indispensable constituent element in Chinese idioms since ancient

• times. Chinese yi-item idioms is an interesting issue.

However, there is little published research on Chinese yi ‘one’-item idioms. A meme is described as anything that is passed on by imitation (Dawkins, 2016). Chinese linguist He Ziran combined memetics founded by foreign scholars with the Chinese language to establish a new pragmatic theory: linguistic memes. Linguistic memetics is a theory to study the law of speech spread and language replication (Li Jie & He Ziran, 2014).

• 1. Importance of the Topic

Therefore, this paper attempts to study the transmission mechanism of Chinese idioms whose first Chinese character is yi (one) from linguistic memetic perspective.

• 1. Importance of the Topic

• 2. Previous Studies

Liu Shue (1992) discusses the use of yi in Chinese idioms as numeral (cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers), adverbial and adjective and analyzes their grammatical meanings and functions.

After researching the Chinese idioms of “yi x bu y”, Yang Lijun (2001) finds that “yi x bu y” can express the grammatical meaning of a certain amount

• r emphasis. It includes two kinds of structure, i.e. “yi

n bu v” and “yi v1 bu v2”. “yi n bu v” that implies exaggeration belongs to a subject-predicate structure, and it has a varied pattern, “yi v yi n”. “yi v1 bu v2” is a consecutive predicate structure, and it has the same structural feature and structural meaning as “yi v jiu x”.

• 2. Previous Studies

That is to say, a certain degree or a certain consequence will be achieved once the action is taken. The significance of idioms derived depends on the lexical categories and the meanings of “x” and “y”, and it is also relative to the meaning of a small quantity of yi and the negative meaning of bu.

• 2. Previous Studies

Zhang Jinxia (2011) believes that numeral collocations of yi in the idioms deserve a further study. Yi can be matched with ban (half), yi (one), er (two), san (three), jiu (nine), shi (ten), bai (hundred), qian (thousand) and wan (ten thousand) to form regular

• collocations. The first property of those collocations is

that they cannot be understood separately. The second

• ne is that most of them hold extended meaning or

exaggerated meanings.

• 2. Previous Studies

Wei Zaijiang (2015) analyzes cognitive attributes

• f the Chinese polar languages—the yi polar idiom

constructions from the perspective of construction grammar, combining with embodied philosophy, figure-ground theory and metonymy theory. He argues that the production and use of polar language constructions are determined by various internal and external factors, such as, human’s experience, cognition, semantics, pragmatics and so on.

• 2. Previous Studies

What is the transmission mechanism

• f Chinese yi‘one’-item idioms with

first character yi from the perspective

• f linguistic memetics?
• 3. Research Question

Qualitative Research

• 4. Research Method

• 5. Key Terms

In 1976, Richard Dawkins, the zoologist of the University of Oxford, published The Selfish Gene. The term “meme” is coined by Dawkins in the eleventh chapter: Memes: the new replicators. Dawkins regards a meme as “a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation” (Dawkins, 2016: 249). Examples of memes are “tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or

• f building arches” (ibid.).

In 1999, The Meme Machine published by Dr. Susan Blackmore established the disciplinary position

• f memes. Blackmore emphasizes that the core of

memes is imitation which includes “any kind of copying

• f ideas and behaviour from one person to another”

(Blackmore, 1999: 43). Blackmore illustrates a meme with an example “when you hear a story and pass on the gist to someone else, you have copied a meme” (ibid.). Memes are “stories, songs, habits, skills, inventions and ways of doing things that are copied from person to person by imitation” (ibid.: 65).

• 5. Key Terms

Meanwhile, when memes are copied and transmitted, they will pass four stages. They are “assimilation, retention, expression and transmission” (Heylighen, 1998: 148). The existent memes must be first noticed, understood, and accepted by the host and then they must remain within the memory of the host. Next, in order to spread widely, memes must be transformed from abstract patterns into concrete entities that the host can perceive. After that, the expression of memes requires tangible vehicles or medias. The carriers can be books, photographs, CDs, etc. Finally, memes are spread from one host to one or more potential hosts.

• 5. Key Terms

Beyond this, Dawkins proposes three qualities that make for high survival value among memes: “longevity, fecundity, and copying-fidelity” (Dawkins, 2016: 251). Longevity refers to the length of time that memes last in human brains or material carriers. Fecundity means the replication speed of memes. Copying-fidelity indicates the degree of retention of the

• riginal version.
• 5. Key Terms

Furthermore, memes can be divided into strong memes and weak memes (He Ziran, Xie Chaoqun and Chen Xinren, 2007). Strong memes refer to those ones that are replicated with high faithfulness, copied with more chances, spread in a wide range and live much

• longer. Nevertheless, weak memes do the reserve.

Moreover, strong memes and weak memes do not have absolutely clear delimitation but relatively distinct (He Ziran et al., 2014: 9).

• 5. Key Terms

B e s i d e s , t h e r e a r e t w o m o d e s o f transmission: “the same core content being inherited in various forms and the identical set pattern being followed by different contents” (He Ziran, 2005: 64). The former is of “memetic genotype” (He Ziran, Xie Chaoqun and Chen Xinren, 2007: 138), and the latter is of “memetic phenotype” (ibid.).

• 5. Key Terms

“In memetical view, language memes reveal the law of speech spread and language replication” (He Ziran, Xie Chaoqun and Chen Xinren, 2007: 150) from a new angle. Since the autumn of 2012, Prof. He Ziran have led his team to establish a series of conceptions on linguistic memes. They propose that “a linguistic meme is a representation of information which is widely spread with the intention of the meme’s host, making use of linguistic structure and by means of repeating and analogizing” (Li Jie & He Ziran, 2014: 59).

• 5. Key Terms

• 6. Structure of the Writing

1 Introduction 2 Previous Studies 3 Research Objects 4 Linguistic Memetic Studies on Chinese yi-item Idioms 4.1 Language Memes on Chinese yi-item Idioms 4.2 Transmission Modes of Memes on Chinese yi- item Idioms 5 Conclusion

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4 Linguistic Memetic Studies on Chinese yi-item Idioms 4.1 Language Memes on Chinese yi-item Idioms If representations want to become memes, “they must meet three demands: firstly, they have determinate content; secondly, they must be replicable; thirdly, they must be able to exert their effects if they wish to be selected” (Distin, 2005: 37-38). Undoubtedly, every Chinese yi-item idiom whose first character is yi represent determinate content and convey determinate cultural information, for instance, “一清二楚” (yī qīng èr bái “be perfectly clear”) .

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.1 Language Memes on Chinese yi-item Idioms What’s more, replication equals to imitation and to a certain extent, imitation can be embodied by the fecundity whose “a rough measure could be obtained by counting the number of times it is referred to in successive years” (Dawkins, 2016: 252). Thus, by searching 398 Chinese yi-item idioms in Modern Chinese Corpus of CCL, the author obtains the frequency of every yi-item idiom. The frequency of “一清二楚” is 811, which shows that the idiom can be replicable.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.1 Language Memes on Chinese yi-item Idioms 我不能和她闹个一清二楚，我怕对妈有什么不 好，尽管妈已经不在了。（当代，张洁《世界上 最疼我的那个人去了》） The sentence means that “I cannot argue with her perfectly clearly because I am afraid to be somewhat not good for her even though she has been gone”. Before Zhang Jie used “一清二楚” to convey her feelings, she had accepted the word and included it in her cognitive system. Then she transmitted the idiom in a written form. Thus, the idiom has an influence on the writer so that it can be spread.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.1 Language Memes on Chinese yi-item Idioms Consequently, the idiom “一清二楚” has determinate content, it can be replicated and it can exert an influence on the user. Therefore, “一清二楚” is a meme. A linguistic meme is referred to be as “a representation of information which is widely spread with the intention of the meme’s host, making use of linguistic structure and by means of repeating and analogizing” (He Ziran et al., 2014: 9). Because “一清 二楚” belongs to Chinese languge, “一清二楚” is a linguistic meme.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.1 Language Memes on Chinese yi-item Idioms Strong linguistic memes refer to languages that have high copying-fidelity, high rate of replication and long survival-time in which fecundity is a crucial

• element. Weak linguistic memes are the reverse (He

Ziran et al., 2014). The structures of Chinese yi-item idioms with higher frequencies are stable; they are often used in written and spoken languages; their meanings are

• simple. Chinese yi-item idioms with lower frequencies

carry much more attributes of ancient Chinese so that they lack practicability in modern times.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2 Transmission Modes of Memes on Chinese yi- item Idioms Let’s take “一如既往” (yī rú jì wǎng “just as in the past”) and “一副急泪” (yī fù jí lèi “a string of tears for urgency”) as examples. The frequency of “一如既 往” is 3146 and the frequency of “一副急泪” is 0 in CCL respectively. By contrast, “一如既往” has been widely used in works, newspapers and documents in modern times and “一副急泪” is nearly not used. Thus, “一如既往” is a strong linguistic meme, while “一副急泪” is a weak linguistic meme.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.1 Transmission Mode of Meanings The genotypic mode of linguistic memes reveals that the essential information of memes do not vary but is adopted in different situations or in different

• ways. According to linguistic memes, they can be

classified into two types, namely the same content being inherited in various forms and the same content being inherited directly (He Ziran et al., 2014).

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.1 Transmission Modes of Meanings As for some yi-item idioms, the same meanings are expressed by different idioms. For instance, the same content “being defeated” is expressed by two idioms “一败如水” (yī bài rú shuĭ literally “the army

• verwhelmed likes water on the ground”) and “一败

涂地” (yī bài tú dì literally “be ready to dash one’s brains out against the ground once defeated”). That is, the same core information is represented by different

• idioms. Thus, they belong to the same content being

inherited in various forms of memetic genotype.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.1 Transmission Modes of Meanings As for some yi-item idioms, the same meaning is expressed by only one idiom, for example, “一般见识” (yī bān jiàn shi “lower oneself to the same level as sb.”). Because their meanings are spread by themselves directly, they pertain to the type of the same content being inherited directly of the memetic genotype.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.1 Transmission Modes of Meanings Therefore, as far as the transmission of meanings

• f Chinese yi-item idioms with the first character yi

are concerned, they can be divided into the same content being inherited in various forms and the same content being inherited directly.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.2 Transmission Mode of Forms Another transmission mode of linguistic memes is the identical set pattern being followed by different

• contents. That is memetic phenotype (He Ziran et al.,

2014). According to the forms of Chinese yi-item idiom, they can be classified into different groups, the idioms

• f every group have the same or similar structures, but

those structures can represent different or similar contents.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.2 Transmission Mode of Forms There are three types. The first one indicates that the third character is same, including five kinds of idioms: numbers that include ban (half), yi (one), er (two), san (three), si (four), jiu (none), shi (ten), bai (hundred), qian (thousand) and wan (ten thousand), negative words that cover bu (no), wu (not have), nan (cannot) and mo (do not) as well as zhi (a structural auxiliary word, equaling to “of” in English), er (a functional word expressing a kind of associated relations) and ru (like).

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.2 Transmission Mode of Forms The structure of “yi x yi y” has a larger number, for example, “一草一木” (yī cǎo yī mù literally “every tree and grass”, figuratively “every small thing”) and “一步一趋” (yī bù yī qū literally “follow step by step”, figuratively “imitate and follow others”).

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.2 Transmission Mode of Forms The second one shows that regular structures appear in the second character, like wu (not have), yan (discourse), pian (piece), dai (generation), bi (pen) and biao (look). For instance, “一臂之力” (yī bì zhī lì literally “the strength of an arm”, figuratively “a helping hand”), “一己之见” (yī jǐ zhī jiàn “one’s own standpoint”) and “一面之词” (yī miàn zhī cí “the statement of only one of the parties”) have the same structure of “yi x zhi y”.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.2 Transmission Mode of Forms The third type involves specific cases, for example, “一脉相承” (yī mài xiāng chéng), “一脉相 传” (yī mài xiāng chuán) and “一脉相通” (yī mài xiāng tōng). The meaning of all of them is “in the same strain”, but their former two characters present the same, that is, forming the structure of “yi mai x y”.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

4.2.2 Transmission Mode of Forms Therefore, as for the transmission of forms of Chinese yi-item idioms with the first character yi, they belong to the mode of the identical set pattern being followed by different or similar contents.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

5 Conclusion This paper probes into the transmission mechanism of Chinese yi-item idioms whose first Chinese character is yi from the perspective of linguistic memetics. After analysis, it finds out Chinese yi-item idioms can be divided into strong linguistic memes and weak linguistic memes.

• 6. Structure of the Writing

5 Conclusion More importantly, the transmission modes of yi- item idioms concentrate on transmission of their forms and meanings. In terms of the transmission of meanings of yi-item idioms, it includes two modes which are the same content being inherited in various forms and the same content being inherited directly. As for the forms of yi-item idioms, they pertain to the mode of the identical set pattern being followed by different contents.

References

[1] Blackmore, S. The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. [2] Dawkins, R. The Selfish Gene: The 4th Anniversary Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. [3] Distin, K. The Selfish Meme: A Critical Reassessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. [4] Heylighen, F. What makes a meme successful? Selection criteria for cultural evolution. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on Cybemetics. Namur: de Cybernetique, 1998: 423-418.

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