《当代语言学》第6卷2004年第3期193-288,北京AbstractsofArticlesZhu,Xiaonong,IntimacyandhighpitchInlinguisticsthereisaprinciplethattherelationshipbetweensoundandmeaningisarbitrary.Anexceptiontotheprincipleisthathighpitchisoftenusedtoexpressintimacy,submission,ortoaskforcooperation(e.g.Ohala1983).Ohalacallsit“frequencycode”.Appliedwiththisethologicaltheory,thecurrentpaperexploresvariousformsoftheso-called“diminutivetone”inChinesedialects.Furthermoreweextendittootherhigh-pitchedlinguisticphenomenasuchas“femaleMandarin”,Taiwan“meimei”(美眉),etc.,whichhavenotbeenexplainedsatisfactorily.Itisproposedthatthediminutivetoneoriginatesfromchildlanguage.He,Yuanjian,ThelooptheoryinChinesemorphologyPreviousstudiesonChinesesyntheticcompoundsthatadoptedthelexicon-syntaxinterfacetheorieswereunsatisfactory,fortheydidnotresolveparadigmsinvolvingthosecompounds.Thispaperre-examinestheissuewithintheframeworkoftheLoopTheoryofPinker(1999),andatthesametimeexaminesthewiderpictureofChinesemorphologyintheframeworkaswell.Chinesesyntheticcompoundingdisplaystwoprominentfeatures:oneofwordorderandtheotherofmorphemesyllables.Thetwofeaturescombinetoformcomplexandsometimesconfusingparadigms.Word-order-wise,thecanonicalwordorderinChinesesyntheticcompoundingis(O)VS,justoppositetothatofChinesesyntax,whichisSV(O).Asaresult,ifasyntheticcompoundconformstothe(O)VSor(O)VXwordorder,itispurelyalexicalstructure,towhichwehaveidentifiedfivetypesofcompound(OVS,OVX,VS,VXandXVX).Incontrast,ifasyntacticwordordershowsupincompounds,suchasVOSandSVX,itcontainsastemthatisasyntax-generatedVP(instantiatingeitherVOorSV)thatisloopedbackfromsyntaxtolexicontobecomeastemofacompound.Looping,however,occursonlywhereV,OandthepreverbalSaredisyllabicrespectively.Incaseswheretheseitemsaremonosyllabic,theresultantstructures,e.g.VOandSVformsofwords,arenotVPsbutratherroots.ThemonosyllabicVOorSVformofwordinquestionisbelievedtobeaVPonceinhistorybuthasevolvedtobecomearoot,presumablythroughassociatedpatternmemory.Ifitistrue,whichwebelieveis,Chinesem