A Study On Modal Adverbs Of Nantong Dialect

Nantong is located in the areas of Jianghuai Mandarin dialect and Wu dialect, the internal differences of its dialects compare greatly, which are divided into four categories, such as Ruhai dialect, Nantong dialect, Haiqi dialect and Sijia dialect. Based on the theory of three dimensions in the studies of Chinese grammar, this thesis, in the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic dimensions, analyzes and researches ten commonly used oral modal adverbs of Nantong dialect, which is in the main city of Nantong(Chongchuan district and Gangzha district).The thesis is divided into seven chapters.Chapter 1 is the introduction. After providing an overview of Nantong’s geographic, historical and population background, the introduction introduces the current research status on Nantong dialect. It explains the significance, methods and data sources of the research. It also defines and classifies modal adverbs on the basis of previous research.Chapter 2 to Chapter 5, describe and analyze ten modal adverbs of Nantong dialect, which are divided into four categories:inferred modal adverbs, which include the conjectural speculation adverb "kong pa" and the deterministic speculation adverb "wu de"; alleged modal adverbs "ren zhen" and "sheng lai"; evaluated modal adverbs "hao dao" denoting fortunate, "gai ying" denoting astonished and "shu ying" denoting emphasized; modal adverbs denoting subjective wishes, such as "gao ji", "xian ding" and "suo ying". In the syntactic dimension, the thesis discusses the distribution position and syntactic component of modal adverbs in sentences, combination with other syntactic constituents and the co-occurrence with other adverbs; in the semantic dimension, taking Mandarin as a reference, this thesis explores the significance of modal adverbs in Nantong dialect; in the pragmatic dimension, this thesis studies the ten modal adverbs on its distribution position in different modality sentences.Based on the adverb "zhi jiao ge", chapter 6 is the monographic studies about modal adverbs of Nantong dialect. Should the adverb be regarded as a modal adverb or an adverb of degree? The author combines the ten modal adverbs with the typical adverbs of degree "mei hun" in Nantong dialect, and carefully compares with "zhi jiao ge" in the syntactic and pragmatic dimensions, to draw a conclusion:"zhi jiao ge" should be classified as an adverb of degree.Chapter 7 summarizes the full chapters, and pointes out the existing inadequacies and the direction of future effects.