Southeast Shanxi Region Lingchuan Dialect Study Of Modal Particles

Being importantpartofspeech inChinese, the modalparticles constitute an importantelement in Chinese dialectical grammar. There are considerable and distinct modalparticles in Chinese dialects, with great differences among various dialects in whicheach has a complete, unified and unique system of modal particles. Therefore, the modalparticles in dialects are worthy of our investigation.Based on the research of the modal particles in Lingchuan county dialects in Shanxiprovince, with the help of fieldwork and corpus analysis, this essay makes a systematicdescription and analysis on this region from the synchronic perspective. Meanwhile,their syntactic features, particle meaning and pragmatic functions are inquired throughthe three aspects: syntax, semantics and pragmatics after which the characteristicsof the modal particles in this region are concluded.The thesis can be divided into five parts.The first part is “Introduction”. Firstly, a brief statement is made about thesubject of the study, purpose, theoretical basis and research approach in this thesis;secondly, an explanation is presented in regard of the origin and examples of the corpusdata; thirdly, the comprehensive study of the modal particles is carried on in a detaileddescription; finally, a brief introduction is made about the Lingchuan dialect.The second part is “The Basic Connotation of Modal Particles”. The modal particleis defined from the question what is tone and mood and its expression. Then the thesisGivesadetaliedexplainationaboutthe definition andcategories of the modalparticles.The third part is the “Syntactic and Semantic Analysis of Modal Particles in LingchuanDialect”, which is the main part of the paper. On the ground of the syntactic structureand semantic meaning, this section aims at the investigation of the usage of the modalparticles in Lingchuan dialect. After the examination, it is concluded that there are16modal particles, which are separately:[la⁰³]、[tiε（?）⁰³]、[l□i⁰³]、[lao⁰³]、[lia²¹³]、[b□⁰³]、[ia⁰³]、[li（?）?³²/lie⁵³]、[lo⁰³]、[t（?）ε⁰³]、[（?）⁰³]、[li⁰³]、[ti⁰³]、[g（?）⁰³]、[lou⁰³]、[to⁵¹³].According to the tone types expressed by those words, they can be divided into sixcategories: statement of modal particles, doubt modal particle imperative modal particles, exclamatory modal particles, teton modal particles, and virtual modalparticles. Then the usage of modal particles in every category is illustrated withexamples from the angle of syntactic structure and semantic meaning.The fourth part is “The Collocation of the Modal Particles in Lingchuan Dialect”.To begin with, an introduction regarding the relative theories of the collocation ofthe modal particles is made, and based on these theories, the collocation of modalparticles in Lingchuan dialect is divided into three groups, in addition. Finally,the collocation in each group is illustrated and analyzed.The fifth part is “The Pragmatic Functions of the Modal Particles in LingchuanDialect”. From the sentence-completing function, tag function, addition of tone andemotional emphasis four aspects separately, an elaborate explanation is carried onabout the pragmatic usage of the modal particles in Lingchuan dialect.The sixth part is “Conclusion”. The peculiarities of the modal particles inLingchuan dialect is generalized after the detailed analysis of their syntactic,semantic and pragmatic functions.