A Comparative Study Of Mood System Between English And Chinese

Recently comparative linguistics has developed quickly. And there are a lot of researches on mood system. Thus, the comparative study on English and Chinese mood system has not been paid enough attention to, and the achievements are not very satisfactory. Mood system is in a large scale and complicated and the mode of thinking in each nation is also different, so this dissertation tries to make a much deeper comparative study on mood system in English and Chinese based on the declarative and interrogative mood.Through comparison, induction, deduction and description, the author discovers that both languages have some clear similarities and differences in mood system. The similar features go as follows. Both can employ many similar expressing devices comprehensively such as modal verb, intonation, sentence pattern, adverb, word order and functional word. Both have a similar classification in summarizing the functional types of mood. Apart from subjunctive mood in English and exclamatory mood in Chinese, the two languages bear indicative or declarative mood, interrogative mood, and imperative mood. Both have similar metaphors of mood which are employed in different moods and produce different pragmatic meanings. Besides, both are layered systems. The differences are:English mostly focuses on the reality while Chinese on the communication; English mood is rigid while Chinese one flexible on expressing means; English mood is prominent in tense while Chinese mood mostly in aspect; English mood is verb-centered while Chinese is centered on modal particle. Besides, the author tries to make a short comparison on modal verb, adverb, intonation and so on, which are also important expressing devices of carrying out the modal meaning.As a result, this research is hopefully expected to be in favor of the study of grammar and pragmatics, especially the point of mood system itself. Language is multi-layered, and mood system is interrelated with the other parts of a language. So it is also expected to be helpful on the study of general linguistics and linguistic typology etc. as well as in language teaching and learning and even translation practice.This thesis will be made up of five parts altogether. The first one is a simple introduction which presents the origin of the state, the objective and significance of this study and its organization. The second part will involve the literature review about the study of mood in English and Chinese respectively as well as the comparative study of mood system between English and Chinese. The third one is to present a general comparison of mood system between English and Chinese with similarities and differences from several aspects. And the fourth one is a specific comparison on some certain devices of conveying mood, such as modal or auxiliary verb, adverb, intonation, word order. The last part is a conclusion with major findings, implications as well as limitations of this study and comes up with some suggestions for further research.