An Applied Study On The Absolute Degree Adverbs And Their Related Forms

Most of the previous studies in the Chinese language circle on absolute degree adverbs focus on these words and their related structures only in language system, without dealing with the way they are used and the role they play in everyday life. Therefore, based on these findings, with the theory of language variation and distribution as the guideline and the spoken discourse in interviews as the material, combining the methods of sociolinguistic study and Chinese grammar study, this dissertation explores these adverbs and their related forms from the perspective of gender and educational degree systematically.This study are mainly consisted of the following aspects: (1) the variability of absolute degree adverbs, including the internal variation and the external variation; (2) the social distribution of each absolute degree adverb; (3) the social distribution of their related structures, including the additional "F+X" frame, the extraordinary "F+X" frame, and the modifying "F+X" frame; (4) the social distribution of their degree salience forms, including the stress salience forms, the reduplication forms and the repetition-use forms.The conclusions are drawn as follows: (1) The system of absolute degree adverbs in spoken Chinese is relatively stable in terms of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, but certain social factors may have some impact on the sub-items in this system; (2) Due to their subjectivity of degree, the absolute degree adverb are similar in degree meaning and function, so they are virtually various ways of realizing "the degree of being absolute"; (3) Which way a speaker chooses to realize the degree of being absolute not only depends on internal factors of language, but also on such external factors as the educational degree and gender of the speaker. In this case, such adverbs and their related forms can function as social status markers.Based on the conclusions above, this dissertation also discusses the stratification of social classes and educational degree in an attempt to build an educational-degree-oriented model in Chinese sociolinguistics study field.