The Usage and Standardization of Function Words in Legislative Chinese Language Overseas: A Case Study of Auxiliary Words in the Civil Code of Macao

This study presents a close investigation into the auxiliaries in legislative Chinese overseas focusing on the Civil Code of Macao. Research results showed that: 1) Structural auxiliaries are dominantly used in the legislative Chinese of Macao, with some cases of numeric auxiliaries and comparison auxiliaries. No tense auxiliaries or modal auxiliaries are found. 2) In addition to its regular usage, the “所”[suo] phrase has shown unconventional phrase combinations. Some cases of the “之”[zhi] phrase are found in too complicated structure, with lengthy syllables and multilayer inner nesting. Besides, the added components before “者”[zhe] are found diversified in nature, sometimes with lengthy syllables. 3) The readability of legislative Chinese overseas is to some extent compromised by the non-conventional combinations, lengthy syllables and multilayer inner nesting structures of the auxiliaries. 4) The standardization of auxiliaries in the Chinese language overseas may be attributable to multiple reasons. Therefore, standardizing the usage of the Chinese language overseas should resort to carefully designed strategies, “prioritizing the prominent issues”, “referring to established principles”, and “simplifying the standardization procedures”.