A Study On The Modal Particle In Xincheng Zhuang

The past years have seen the great achievements made in the study of modal particles. However,little research work has been done on the modal particles of Zhuang language.Thus, based on the data collected from the author's own fieldwork and some previous relevant research, the present work is to make an in-depth study on the distribution, modal meaning, usage and function of the modal particles in natural conversations of Xincheng Zhuang.The present work will be structured as follows:Chapter one begins with the literature review on research on modal particles of Zhuang language,and then proceeds to present the significance and innovation of the present study and the research methods being used.Chapter two introduces the definition of mood and modal particles given in China and abroad. Taking into consideration of the features of 'Xincheng Zhuang, the present work gives a new definition of mood, modal particles and then limits the scope of the study. Also given is a brief introduction of the system and characteristics of the modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang.Based on the "isolating method",Chapter three is devoted to describing and analyzing the meaning and the usage of each modal particle in Xincheng Zhuang,which comes up with the following conclusions aboutthe characteristics of modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang:1. In terns of position,Xincheng Zhuang has three types of modal particlesisentence-initial, sentence-middle and sentence-final.2.Phonetically,modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang are not unstressed words. Also,they are super-segmental.3.With respect to usage,modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang have the following characteristics:1)Xincheng Zhuang has a considerable number of modal particles, and each has various usages of their own.2)Although each modal particle has various usages,its basic meaning is unitary.3)The subtle difference in the meaning of some modal particles can be expressed by the height of the tongue position or the tone pitch.Those modal particles with low position of the tongue or with high tone pitches have strong mood while those with high position of the tongue or with low tone pitches have weak mood. These modal particles are believed to be phonetically variants of the same modal particle being used in different environments or being used to meet different needs.4)Modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang form an autonomous system, which allows no random substitutions.5)Modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang are not unstressed words, so the tune of modal particles of sentence-final type has a great influence uponthe intonation of the sentence, which tends to be the same as the tune of the sentence-final modal particle.6)Besides being used alone, sentence-final modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang can be reduplicated and used consecutively. Either being reduplicated or used consecutively, the modal particles are used to express more complicate moods.7)The consecutive sentence-final modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang have their unique characteristics:(1)The co-occurrence sequence of the consecutive modal particles can be concluded as: the modal particles in declarative sentences→the modal particles in imperative sentences→the modal particles in exclamatory sentences→the modal particles in interrogative sentences.(2)With regard to frequency of having consecutive modal particles, of the four types of sentences mentioned above,declarative sentences, interrogative sentences and the imperative sentences rank first to third respectively, with exclamatory sentences ranking last in which modal particles seldom occur.(3)Among the four types of interrogative sentences, the consecutive modal particles mainly occur at the end of the interrogative sentences of yes-no type.8)Reduplication occurs only in modal particles with contour tone, and following is the pattern of tonal modification of these modal particles: thetone pitch of the preceding syllable is 231 and the tone pitch of the second syllable is 21.Besides, after reduplicating, the initial 1- of some modal particles with contour tone usually changes into h-.The reduplication shows a more relaxed mood.With theories of marking and system-functional linguistics, Chapter four makes an attempt to explore the common functions sharing by the three types of modal particles in terms of position in a sentence, i.e. the sentence-initial type, the sentence-middle type and the sentence-final type, drawing a conclusion that the modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang all share the following four functions: communicative function, modifying function, marking function and discourse function.Chapter five first makes a brief study on the forming of the modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang, proposing four means of modal particle formation in Xincheng Zhuang: (1)conventionalization, (2)derivation, (3)grammaticalization and (4)loaning. Meanwhile, mainly based on the theories of grammaticalization and 'three dimensions', this Chapter gives an analysis, in such aspects as syntactic position, semantic change and sound reduction, of the forming of the following four commonly-used modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang: ko(?)n²³¹, kva³³/kv(?)²² , te(?)m³² and pai³².Chapter six is a summary of the present study, identifying its limitations and suggesting directions for further study.In a word, the present work makes a comprehensive and dynamic study on the distribution, meaning, usage and functions of the modal particles in Xincheng Zhuang, providing reasonable explanations for relative issues. It is thus of a contribution not only to the study of Zhuang language but to the study of Chinese and other minority languages as well.