The Information Structures And Functional Types Of The Issue On Question In Modern Chinese

The issue about question in Modern Chinese is one of the focus topics in Chinese linguistics researching. The forefathers and predecessors have made great achievements on this topic. This dissertation takes the information-parsing grammar as the guideline to reinvestigate the question in Modern Chinese, the results about the influence of information structure to form and function is discussed, and some dispute issue is explained reasonably. This kind of researching is benefit for the deep cognition of question system, and for the foundation on the information parsing theory of Chinese as well.This dissertation is composed of 7 chapters as follows.Chapter 1 is the introduction. The reason and the significance of this research is explained, an overview of research on the question in Modern Chinese is given, the information-parsing grammar and the train of thought of this research is mentioned, and some important concept is defined.Chapter 2 researches the information structures and functional types of ma-questions in modern Chinese. Three main functional types which named inquiry questions, suspicion questions and retort questions are distinguished by tracing the grammaticalization of ma. The influence that information structures affect function types are investigated and made some conclusions that the ma question is used as inquiry question when the information focus on the head verb, the ma question is used as suspicion question when the structure is more complicated and the information focus is not on the head verb, the ma question is used as retort questions when the proposition ahead of ma question is presented as given information.Chapter 3 discusses the information structures and functional types of VP-neg-VP questions. The information has important effect during the formation of affirmative inclination of shi-bu-shi+VP. The new development on form and function of VP-neg-VP is displayed and made a conclusion that the affirmative inclination has become a universal phenomenon in VP-neg-VP questions, furthermore this inclination is the inexorable result during the development of Chinese. The information structure plays an important role in this process. The investigate about affirmative inclination leads to another ratiocination that VP-neg-VP question which express the inquiry function will decline, and the ma question and VP-neg question will replace it.The topic of chapter 4 is about the researching of wh-question and alternative question by way of information-parsing analysis. We draw some conclusions as follows: The reason of interrogative pronouns used as non-interrogatively relates to the loss of focus character. The alternative question falls into two functional categories, one is two-feasibility alternative which expresses the inquiry function, the other is multiple-feasibility alternative question which express the affirmative inclination. The former has a function of emphasis, and the latter guidance.Chapter 5 discusses the interrogative information of modal particle ne andfunction of ne questions. The property of ne is demonstrated by investigating the restricted relationship between the form and the information it expresses. The use regulation of ne is pointed out, that is the emergence of ne influenced by the focus prominence of interrogative form. A balanced law of interrogative information is give to interpret the usage of ne in the alternative question. A unified reason is give to explain the different functions of ne questions on the basis of the interrogative information of particle ne.Chapter 6 researches the mixed-questions and compound-questions. The mixed-questions are classified into five categories, special yes-no question, special VP-neg-VP question, special alternative question, alternative yes-no question, alternative VP-neg-VP question. Three rules for mixing of interrogative form are summarized as follows: A. the modal particle ma excludes the VP-eng-VP form. B. the mixing rules of interrogative pronoun and interrogative modal particle/VP-eng-VP form is restricted by the focus prominence. C. the yes-no question and VP-neg-VP question which has affirmative inclination can be mixed first. About compound-questions, two inclinations is discussed, one is subjective inclination, the other is multiple structure interrogational inclination. At last, we made a conclusion that a deep investigation of mixed-questions and compound-questions is valuable for both teaching of Chinese as foreign language and NLPoThe conclusion is given in chapter 7.The contents and main achievements of this dissertation are summarized. Some issues with regard to the question in modern Chinese are listed for further research. This field will be one of the topics of my further research work.