A Comparative Study Of Factual Connection Element Between Chinese And English

The term “Factual Connective Components”,which was first put forward by Liao Qiuzhong(1986),is mainly used to indicate that the content of the following discourse is true.We also adopt this term and redefine it as the words or phrases which can not only show the truth of the propositional content of a sentence,but also have cohesive function.Based on the meaning criteria,Factual Connective Components as our research objects are divided into three categories: 1)The adversative actual connective components,including Chinese “Qishi”,“Shijishang”,“Shishishang” and English actually,in fact,as a matter of fact;2)The candid truth telling connection components,mainly including Chinese “Shuoshihua”,“Laoshishuo” and English honestly,to be honest,to tell the truth;3)The truth confirming factual connective components,including Chinese “Zhende”,“Dique”,“Queshi” and English really,indeed.These Factual Connective Components have been studied from different angles in both Chinese and English academic circles respectively,which provides theoretical support and methodological reference for our research.However,there are few research fruits on systematic comparative studies between Chinese and English Factual Connective Components both at the synchronic and the diachronic dimensions.In view of this,we make a comprehensive and comparative study of Chinese and English factual connectives from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives.From the synchronic perspective,we mainly describe the Chinese and English factual connectives in a detailed way through syntax-semantic-pragmatic-discourse dimensions.In the meantime,the synchronic differences between them are quantified with the statistic corpus study of CCL and COCA.From the diachronic perspective,we mainly analyze their diachronic evolution process by applying the theories of grammaticalization and subjectification.And with the help of the ancient Chinese historical corpus in CCL and COHA(Corpus of Historical American English),the grammaticalization mechanism is also discussed.Through this systematic comparative study,we hope to provide some help for second language acquisition,English-Chinese bilingual dictionary compilation and translation.This thesis is mainly divided into the following parts:In the introduction part,we mainly introduce the purpose and significance of the research,review of previous studies,research methods,sources of corpus and innovation value.Chapter One is a synchronic and diachronic comparative study between Chinese and English adversative factual connective components.First of all,we use English-Chinese bilingual corpus to make a statistical analysis of the translation between Chinese “Qishi”,“Shijishang”,“Shishishang” and English actually,in fact,as a matter of fact.Then,from the synchronic perspective,we conduct a comparative study by discussing the similarities and differences between them in syntactic positions,conjunctive use,semantic feature,modality function,face-saving function,counter-expectation function,discourse organization function and information function.Finally,the paper analyzes the diachronic evolution of the turning-linking factual connecting elements and discusses their evolution mechanism.Chapter Two is a comprehensive comparative study on the synchronic and diachronic perspectives of factual connective elements in Chinese and English.First of all,we use the bilingual corpus to analyze the translation between “Shuoshihua”,“Laoshishuo” and honestly,to be honest,to tell the truth.Then we make a comparative study of them from the perspectives of syntactic position,consecutive use and co-occurrence,semantic cohesion,modal function,emphasizing function,politeness and euphemism function,evidentiality function,discourse organization function and information function.Finally,we use related theories such as grammaticalization,subjectification and intersubjectification to analyze its diachronic evolution.Chapter Three is a comparative study between the Chinese and English truth confirming factual connection components.First of all,we conduct statistic study on the corresponding situations between Chinese “Zhende”,“Dique”,“Queshi” and English really,indeed in the bilingual corpus.Then,from the synchronic perspective,this thesis comprehensively compares and analyzes the syntactic position,conjunction and co-occurrence,the semantic feature,focus-marking function,attitude-marking function,evidentiality function,speech act function,discourse organization functions and information functions of the Chinese-English truth factual connective components.Finally,the rules of their grammaticalization and subjectification are discussed.Chapter Four is the conclusion.We summarize the similarities and differences of the three kinds of Chinese-English factual connective components respectively,and point out the inadequacies of the study and the potential follow-up studies in this field.