This book introduces the minimal words in
Chinese from four aspects: their concepts, positions, types, and effects. Facts
show that the minimal words in Chinese really exist and are the results of the
rules in the prosodic system. The minimal words are prosodic words realized by
the standardized feet of disyllabic words, which are a type of special prosodic
words--the most harmonious prosodic words and are "dynamic", i.e.,
they are closely related to specific morphology and syntax. This is also the
biggest difference between the minimal words and standard prosodic words. The
establishment of the minimal words plays an important role for language
studies: They cannot only provide new research perspectives and thinking for
the differentiation of words and phrases, but also promote the syntactic
movement, and participate in the construction of combination words as a whole.