This paper aims to analyze and identify the morphological and syntactic features of the two-syllable structure ‘X+ran(然)’(unipartite words of parts-of-speech) and its generation and derivation within modern Chinese. The results of this paper are as follows. First, there are adjectives, distinctives, adverbs, conjunctions, verbs, and nouns in modern Chinese ‘X+ran(然).’ Contrary to existing arguments, it was found that ‘ran(然)’ of ‘X+ran(然)’ not only functions as a suffix in adjectives and adverbs, but also functions as a suffix for verbs, distinctives, and conjunctions. Second, ‘X+ran(然)’ does not function solely with the morphological features of structuralism, but rather generates and derives syntactic structures flexibly after generating the synthetic compound words through the generation and projection of the Root Phrase. In conclusion, ‘X+ran(然)’ consists of covert synthetic compounds of distributed morphology which has morphological and syntactic features, and is connected to syntactic layers in order to express its identity.

Modern Chinese, Unipartite words of parts-of-speech, X+ran(然), Two-syllable wordss, Generation, Derivation