This paper provides analysis on the words with quasi-affix “Mi(迷)”.As an earlier quasi-affix, “Mi(迷)” combines with some monosyllabic nouns has been included in the dictionary and very stable in use. However in recent years, with the popularity of cyber language, many new words with quasi-affix were created and used. The purpose of this study is to research the composition and use of these new words in “X-Mi(迷)” word group.
Firstly, after analyzing various forms of sentences consist of “X-Mi(迷)” in BCC corpus, the syllabic characteristics of “X” and lexical features of “X” were observed. That is disyllabic noun is the primary form of “X”. The lexical feature of “X” is the proportion of nouns as “X” is much higher than that of a verb. It is very rare that adjective work as “X”, and almost all sentences of “adjective X” from “wenwei po” of Hong Kong. Therefore, the usage of “adjective X” should have regional limitations.
Secondly, Disyllabic “X” has three principle word formations, which means there are three kinds of phrases can be “X”. They are coordinative phrase, verb-object phrase and the subordinate phrase. And among these three word formations, verb-object phrase be “X” is the most common case. On the other hand, coordinative phrase and subordinate phrase are the main word formations of Monosyllabic “X”.
As to the part of speech of “X”, it can be Subject, Object and Attributive in the sentence. Moreover, Quantifier can precedes the whole “X-Mi(迷)” structure, and personal plural “Men(们)” can follows the whole structure to show a complex number of people.
Thirdly, the study combs the semantic development of Character “Mi(迷)”. The original meaning of verb “Mi(迷)” was “people cannot identify the direction”. Then it continuous to be extended to “bewilder / to confuse”, then extended to “to lose one’s Mind”; to adverb “irrationally / blindly”; finally it was developed to a noun as “a person obsessed with something”, this is precisely the usage of quasi-affix “Mi(迷)”, and the figurative meaning of “Mi(迷)”.
Fourthly, the study try to explain the reasons that verb “Mi(迷)” developed to a quasi-affix. These reasons consist of “analogy”; “the economic principle of language”; “the Metaphorical Mechanism of Language” and “the Metonymy Mechanism of Language”. Furthermore, the word formation way of structure “X-Mi(迷)” was influenced by “double tone structure” and “genus structure” of Chinese, it is reflected in the characteristic of “X” which is disyllabic noun.
Through a specific observation of “X-Mi(迷)”, we realized that even if “Mi(迷)” is an very earlier quasi-affix, it is still being used and innovating. The new created words with quasi-affix “Mi(迷)” are mainly disyllabic words. These words are the most primary and novel part of the word group “Mi(迷)” and will continue to be used.