A Study On The Category Of Purposes In Modern Chinese

This paper,based on the theory of semantic grammar,in compliance with combination of form and meaning,as well as of description and explanation, illustrates and analyses the expressions of purpose in modern Chinese at large.The content and innovations of this paper could be summarized as follows:1.This paper is the first builds up a comparatively complete category of purposes of modern Chinese.It classifies the purposes into three types,specifies their forms and a consecutive and unified link typically exists within purpose expression of the three types.2.Theoretical investigation on category of purposes discovers the connections and differences between purpose category and cause-effect category,distinguishing between cause-effect of logic and cause-effect of expression,purpose in philosophical perspective and purpose in linguistic expression.3.This paper is the first thorough description and analysis on purpose marks (including lexis and format),and also a study on comparing the functions of relevant marks.Some of which were not investigated before,such as the semantic and syntax research on"为(了) X起见",the rule of implicitness/explicitness of the character"而"in"为(了)X而Y"pattern,the similarities and differences between"是为了"and"为的是",comparison of"好"and"以便",purpose indicators"用来","用以","借以"and etc.Some opinions are new perspectives generated from the researches of predecessors,such as the research on emotion embodied in"为(了)X而X"pattern, study on conjunction"来"that indicates purpose,comparison on"省得","兔得"and"以兔","去+VP"and"VP+去"and so on.4.The paper investigates the category of purposes from discourse approach and specially discusses the hierarchy of purpose,eliciting the two expression forms of hierarchy of purpose and their semantic patterns.