The Approaches and Internal Factors of the Enrichment of Chinese Vocabulary

The course of the enrichment of the Chinese vocabulary is mainly driven by the internal factors of the language system. This paper illustrates this viewpoint from three aspects: phonetics, semantic and grammar. The phonetic factor refers to the conflict between the limitation of phonetic forms and the unlimitation of the meaning, as well as the features of Chinese syllables, which makes bisyllablization an important method to enlarge the Chinese vocabulary. Semantic factor refers to the division of polysemy and the unbalance of the semantic system, which promotes the increasing of new compound words, allomorphs, and imitation words. Grammar factor refers to the agreement between the Chinese lexicon and syntax, which accounts for the acceptance of some free phrases and abbreviations as words.