A Diachronic Study Of "A-Not-A" In Chinese

The interrogative sentence plays a paramount role in human language,and has been a hot language research topic.Some researchers put forward that Chinese questions can be divided into four kinds: wh-questions,alternative questions,yes-no questions and A-not-A questions(Ding Shengshu et al 1961;Huang Borong & Liao Xudong 2011).As an important type of interrogative sentences,A-not-A questions have their unique expressive forms and rich expressive effects.It is generally believed that A-not-A questions refer to questions in the form of affirmation and negation of predicate,which require the hearer to choose one item from the affirmative or negative content as the answer.It looks like an alternative question in form and a yes-no question in function.More and more scholars pay attention to A-not-A questions,and have made a lot of achievements,which have laid a foundation for further researches of A-not-A questions.Song Jinlan(1993)describes it as “A bu A” questions,and Shao Jingmin(1990)and Xu Laidi(2004)name it “X bu X” questions.James C.-T.Huang(1991)proposes three types of A-not-A questions: AB-not-AB,A-not-AB,and AB-not-A.This thesis adopts the view of James C.-T.Huang(1991).In this thesis,AB-not-AB,A-not-AB and AB-not-A refer to VP-Neg-VP,V-Neg-VP and VP-Neg-V respectively.It is obvious that the relationship between the types of A-not-A questions is inseparable.This determines that the relationship between them must be taken into account when studying A-not-A questions,and in the diachronic studies,only by considering their various types together can we get a deeper understanding.A-not-A questions have drawn the attention of plenty of scholars and studies of these questions come one after another.But generally speaking,these studies are mostly carried out from synchronic perspectives rather than diachronic aspects,whether at the syntactic,semantic or pragmatic level.Therefore,the considerable and exhaustive synchronic studies of A-not-A questions have also initiated the exploration of the historical origin of A-not-A questions.It is worth mentioning that after the 1980 s,the development of studies on A-not-A questions in dialects has raised the interest of scholars in the research on the historical origin of A-not-A questions.Mei Tsu-lin(1978)claims that alternative questions are closely associated with A-not-A questions,and infers that A-not-A questions are developed from alternative questions,greatly stimulating the discussion on the historical evolution of A-not-A questions.Chinese A-not-A questions have unique structural forms,and it is of great theoretical significance to explore the diachronic sources of A-not-A questions,analyze their evolution process and reveal their development rules.In order to probe into Chinese A-not-A questions,this thesis proposes the following two questions:(1)What is the development of VP-Neg-VP?(2)How does the development of VP-Neg-VP occur?From a diachronic point of view,this thesis investigates the historical development of A-not-A questions in detail,describes the characteristics of different types of A-not-A questions in the diachronic evolution,and combines the characteristics of each historical stage of A-not-A questions.This thesis endeavors to explain the diachronic process of A-not-A questions through the previous theoretical studies.Throughout the historical development of A-not-A questions,the evolution from VP-Neg-VP to VP-Neg can be seen.Based on the theory of Feng Shengli(2017),firstly this thesis explores the process of VP-Neg-VP changing into V-Neg-VP and VP-Neg-V by using the disappearance of coordinate structure caused by nuclear stress.VP-Neg-VP is a coordinate VP structure,and each VP is a nuclear stress domain.It is known that a sentence can only have one nuclear stress.VP-Neg-VP becomes an ungrammatical structure.In order to conform to the trend of history,VP-Neg-VP evolves into V-Neg-VP and VP-Neg-V.Then the change from VP-Neg-V to VP-Neg is explained by means of extrametricalization(Feng Shengli 2013).VP in VP-Neg-V constitutes a nuclear stress domain,and the verb V at the end of the sentence is extrametricalized.So the verb V must appear in an unstressed form.Once the word appears in a light way,over time,when it can no longer be more lighter,it will be deleted and disappear.As a result,VP-Neg-V becomes VP-Neg.Finally,this thesis analyzes that a typical negative word ? wu in VP-Neg evolves into the modal particle ? ma,which is completed under the influence of grammaticalization.