The Research On Epistemic Modality In Modern Chinese

On the basis of making general survey of the research on the modality, This dissertation takes the Semantic Functional Grammar as the basic theoretical device and also uses Cognitive Grammar,Grammaticalization,Discourse Analysis,Construction Grammar to be our research approaches to study the epistemic meaning of the "Pa","Kongpa","Napa","Renwei","Juede",the structure "NP+V+qilai+AP". Firstly, this dissertation defines the conception of the epistemic modality and sums up the characteristics of the epistemic modality; Secondly, this dissertation ascertains the objects of our research; Thirdly, this dissertation studies epistemic possibility epistemic necessity,assertion of epistemic modality,evaluative epistemic modality and apprehensional-epistemic modality.Chapter One gives the illustration of the theoretical basis and approaches employed in the research and outlines the basic problems to be discussed, and points the likely flaws involved in the research and possible further research orientations.Chapter Two makes general survey of the research on the history of the modality,the definitions of the modality and the systems of the modality.Chapter Three firstly defines the conception of the epistemic modality and sums up the characteristics of the epistemic modality; secondly, this chapter ascertains the objects of our research.Chapter Four takes the epistemic meaning of the "Pa","Kongpa" as the objects of our research to study the epistemic possibility and the apprehensional-epistemic modality. In Modern Chinese, "Kongpa" can be divided into two types: "Kongpa1"(Verb) and "Kongpa2"(Adverb), which can be distinguished by the Syntactic structure. "Kongpa2" can reflect the degree of a speaker's commitment to the truth of the proposition and "Kongpa2" can be divided into two types:"Kongpa21" and "Kongpa22". "Kongpa21" expresses the speaker's the apprehensional-epistemic modality which reflects the speaker's uncertainty about whether a state of affairs does,did,or will obtain, together with his/her own evaluation of the state of affairs as desirable; However "Kongpa22" expresses the speaker's the epistemic possibility about the proposition. The differences between the "Kongpa21"and "Kongpa22" can be represented in the discourse:"Kongpa21"can be used to express the pragmatic inference in the resultant Clause and "Kongpa22"can be used to express the abductive inference in the causative Clause.Chapter Five takes the epistemic meaning of "Napa" as the object of our research to study the epistemic necessity. This Chapter firstly studies the pragmatic functions of the sentence of the "Napa":there is a sentence of A, and the sentence of "Napa" which includes the subordinate clause named P and the main clause named Q is in the back of the sentence of A. The pragmatic functions of the sentence of "Napa" are elucidations of the sentence of A. The sentence of P supposes some circumstances in the concessive clause, and the sentence of Q declares that the sentence of A is not changed. Usually, the sentence of "Napa" affirms or negates the all scalars in the Scalar Model through affirming and negating the extremeness in the Scalar Modal in order to reflect the speaker's epistemic necessity about the sentence of A. Secondly, this chapter studies the lexicalization of the "Napa". The lexicalization of the conjunction "Napa" started with the Ming Dynasty, and was completed in the later period of the Qing Dynasty, which has gone through three stages:the phonetical segment/the coexisting of the phonetical segment and the Conjunction/the Conjunction. Reanalysis is the main mechanism of its grammaticalization, and the background information packaging of the foreground information and the mechanism of the prosody are the main motivations of its grammaticalization. Grammaticalization goes with semantic change and the pragmatic inference is the motivation of its semantic change.Chapter Six takes the epistemic meaning of "Renwei" as the object of our research to study the strong assertion of epistemic modality. Firstly, the structure of "I/we think ('Renwei')" can reflect the certain of a speaker's commitment to the truth of the proposition. This chapter studies the structure of assertion and the co-occurrence of the categories of words and the epistemic parenthetical of the structure of "I/we think ('Renwei')" through researching the New-Generalized Distributing Theory. Secondly, this Chapter also studies the pragmatic functions of the sentence of "I/we think ('Renwei')" through applying the Discourse Analysis Theory.Chapter Seven takes the epistemic meaning of "Juede" as the object of our research to study the weak assertion of epistemic modality. Firstly, the structure of "I/we think ('Juede')" can reflect the uncertain of a speaker's commitment to the truth of the proposition. This chapter studies the structure of assertion and the co-occurrence of the categories of words and the epistemic parenthetical of the structure of "I/we think ('Juede')" through researching the New-Generalized Distributing Theory. Secondly, this Chapter also studies the pragmatic functions of the sentence of "I/we think ('Juede')" through applying the Politeness Principle and the Face-Management View. Finally, this Chapter also studies grammaticalization of the structure of "I/we think ('Juede')":the structure of "I/we think('Juede')" has changed form the phrase of subject-predicate into a kind of pragmatic marker and a kind of discourse marker.Chapter Eight takes the epistemic meaning of the structure of "NP+V+qilai+AP" as the object of our research to study the evaluation of epistemic modality. Firstly, the structure of "NP+V+qilai+AP" can reflect the evaluation of speaker about the states of affairs according to the speaker's knowledges and beliefs, and the evaluation of epistemic modality of the structure of "NP+V+qilai+AP" originates from the semantic evolvement and intersubjectivalization of the structure of "qilai".Secondly, This chapter uses the Theory of Thematic Structure to discuss the typical Pragmatic Contexts of the construction of "(NP)+V+qilai+AP", and it concludes that the construction of "(NP)+V+qilai+AP" is the Multiple Theme Construction, "NP" is the Topic Theme and "V+qilai" is the Interpersonal Theme.As a conclusion of the dissertation, Chapter Nine sums up the types of the epistemic modality in Modern Chinese and testifies that the semantic system of the epistemic modality of Modern Chinese is continuous and in graduated.