Semantic Category Of Interrogative Pronoun

This paper uses the Prototype Theory, the Construction Grammar Theory, and the Subjectification Theory to study the semantic category of interrogative pronoun. The Prototype Theory contributes to the classfication of semantic category of interrogative pronoun, the explaination on the hierarchy of semantic members in the category, and predicting the expansion direction of the semantic category; The Construction Theory may explain the transition semantic in the process of continuous expansion; The Subjectification Theory can reveal the subjectification of the semantic category, and explain the cognitive motivation of the semantic expansion.The paper is divided into8chapters, the first and the last respectively is the introduction and the conclusion, other chapters are as follows:Chapter2discusses the theoretical foundation of the study and the semantic constitutor of the interrogative pronoun. The categoricalization is the foundation of human understanding the world, therefore, the prototype theory can reveal the complex phenomenon in the perceptive field. In the semantic category of interrogative pronouns,"query" and "reference" constitute the basic level of the semantic category of interrogative pronouns, and gather into the prototype of the semantic category in a complete form. At the same time, the status of the categorial other members depends on relevance of the semantic prototype, the category members which have more relevance to prototype semantic stands on the semi-edge position, and the ones which have less relevance or no relevance lies on the edge position in the category.Chapter3discusses the prototype semantic of interrogative pronoun. The prototype semantic of "who","what" is respectively "query someone " and " query something", therefore, the prototype semantic features of "who\what" are [+querying],[+refer to],[+people] or [+things]; The prototype semantic of "where" is "query place", therefore, the prototype semantic features of "where" are [+querying],[+refer to] or [+places]; The prototype semantic of "how" is "query way\reason\state", therefore, the prototype semantic features of "how" is [+querying],[+refer to],[+way/reason/state]; The prototype semantic of "how many" is "query amount ", therefore, the prototype semantic features of "how many" are [+querying],[+refer to],[+amount]. Generalise these interrogative pronouns owning different content, we concluded,"querying" and "refer to" is the two main features of prototype semantics of interrogative pronouns.Chapter4discusses the semi-edging semantic of interrogative pronouns. The main members of semi-edging semantic of interrogative pronoun include "uncertain reference","certain reference""any reference". The semantic expressed by the three references is a continuum, and the boundary between each other is fuzzy. According to the semantic features of uncertain reference, it includes uncertain reference, precedent reference. According the semantic direction of certain reference, it includes sentence subject reference, back reference and inter-reference. According generating condition of any reference, it includes whole reference, precedent reference and conditional reference.Chapter5discusses the edging semantic of interrogative pronouns. When interrogative pronouns don't have querying function and also don't have reference function, completely lost the prototype semantic features of interrogative pronoun, and only express speaker's a kind of subjective attitude, its semantic stands on the edge in the semantic category, that is, become edging semantics including negative, exclamation and resemble-modal particles. Negative is one of the edging semantic of interrogative pronoun. Subjectification causes the negative degree sometimes strong and sometimes weak. Strong and weak negative need the other sentence ingredients to performance besides interrogative pronouns. Being same as negative, exclamation, resemble-modal particles in a large part is the structure semantics.Chapter6discusses the relationship between the semantic members of interrogative pronouns. Querying, reference, subjectification is three major semantic contents of interrogative pronouns which relationship among them can be studied from different angles. On querying and reference, we can discuss the relationship in the perspective of typology and diachronic evolution. On querying and subjectification, we try to analyze the their relationship in the mental representation of querying, the intersujectivity of asking, the subjectivity of question focus, and the compatibility of uncertain reference and negative based on the subjectivity.Chapter7discusses the expansion causes of interrogative pronoun. The semantic category of interrogative pronoun could expand from prototype semantic to the edging semantic due to the factors such as reflection of cognitive category, subjectivity participation and metadiscourse influence. the mapping of Cognitive category is a mental process as a participant construe the meaning, the participation of subjectivity demonstrates subjective participant how to get itself into the perception field and complete semantic construct, metadicourse is subjective device of which speaker/writer effectively present the meaning, the above three factors work together to promote the category expansion of interrogative pronoun.The framework consists of the above chapters, but the transitive semantic, which plays a joint role in the semantic process of continuous expansion, cannot be ignored since it is a powerful evidence for the semantic expansion continuum of interrogative pronoun. Namely:The semantic category of interrogative pronoun is the semantic continuum, in which a transitive semantic exists between A and B, B and C, the transitive semantics are the jionts between different semantics which has semantic features of the two adjacent semantic stages with the duplicity of semantics.