A Pragmatic Study Of The Coordinating Conjunction Ji In Zuozhuan

The study of function words has long been seen as an important part in linguistics.There is a growing trend that more and more scholars are focusing on the study of conjunctions.This paper focuses on the coordinating conjunction ji in Zuozhuan.Scholars have carried out research into the lexical meanings and syntactic functions of ji and they have made great contributions to this field.However,few studies have touched on the pragmatic functions of ji.This paper studies the coordinating conjunction ji in Zuozhuan mainly from the perspective of pragmatics.The main research questions of this paper include: What functions does the coordinating conjunction ji perform in Zuozhuan? How are these functions performed in Zuozhuan? Why is the coordinating conjunction ji used to perform these functions in Zuozhuan?To address these issues,the author attempts to provide an account based on the framework of logical theory and Grice’s maxims of conversation.To some extent,the function performed by the coordinating conjunction ji can be roughly seen as equivalent to that performed by the logical connective and(&).This theory deals with a truthfunctional relation between the conjuncts of the logical operator and(&).It means that there is no sequence between the conjuncts.This function involves the syntactic structure between the conjuncts connected by ji in Zuozhuan.Therefore,the logical framework is an effective tool for the author to extract and analyze this type of function performed by ji in Zuozhuan.For the pragmatic functions,the author tries to analyze them based on Grice’s maxims of conversation with the author’s supplementary theory.Grice’s maxims of conversation include the quantity maxim,the quality maxim,the relation maxim and the manner maxim.There is one important sub-maxim of the manner maxim: “Be Orderly”.It requires the speakers to present their narratives in a certain order and not the other way around.This,in turn,contradicts the logical function performed by logical connective and(&)and ji in Zuozhuan.Therefore,this type of function should be studied from the perspective of pragmatics.It reveals the intentions of the speaker when relating events in a specific order.But Grice’s sub-maxim “Be Orderly” mainly deals with a temporal sequence and it is not fully applicable to Chinese context.Owing to this factor,the author provides some supplementary explanations under this maxim.The study of this paper uses a corpus-based research methodology to maintain the data accuracy.From the data collection to the data analysis,a wide range of linguistic analysis tools like corpus,AntConc are used to ensure a meticulous and scientific study.The study finds that except for the logical function,there are three main pragmatic functions which ji performs in Zuozhuan.Specifically,the coordinating conjunction ji has been used pragmatically by Confucius in Zuozhuan to indicate the Time-oriented Relation,the Party-oriented Relation and the Status-oriented Relation between the conjuncts of ji respectively.These pragmatic functions are performed by placing the conjuncts of ji in a certain sequence.By indicating the Time-oriented Relation,ji can serve to maintain the accuracy of recordings in Zuozhuan.By indicating the Partyoriented Relation and the Status-oriented Relation and conveying ethical implicatures,it shows how Confucius delivers his thoughts about “Li”,i.e.the real intentions of the speaker(Confucius),in his book.This paper can make contributions in the following two aspects.Theoretically speaking,it can supplement Grice’s Manner Maxim and provide a new perspective for related scholars.Since Grice’s sub-maxim “Be Orderly” mainly deals with the temporal relation and may be limited to English.For Chinese context,ji can bear more pragmatic functions like the transmission of ethical implicature.In other words,sub-maxim “Be Orderly” can imply that the speaker conveys his/her ethical intentions by presenting words in a sequenced manner.This should be the supplementary information for Grice’s original maxim.Practically speaking,it can inspire readers to notice the pragmatic functions of ji in Zuozhuan and other classical works.This will help them better grasp the real purposes of speakers.In this regard,it can,in the meantime,provide some guidance for teachers who teach classical Chinese works to pay attention to the specific use of such function words.This should help them deliver their classes more deeply and effectively.