The Research On The Marked Hypothetical Complex Sentences In Modern Chinese

The hypothetical complex sentence is an important type of sentences in Chinese. As a subsystem of the complex sentences, it is a relatively complicated type whether in the aspect of syntax or on the usage of conjunctions. In academia, a lot of work have been done on the hypothetical complex sentences and their markers, most of which are on contemporary Chinese, but the studies on modern Chinese are few, comparing to those on ancient Chinese, medieval Chinese and contemporary Chinese. A large number of hypothetical complex sentences came close to disappear in modern Chinese, meanwhile a lot of new hypothetical complex sentences arose.This paper focuses on the marked hypothetical complex sentences in modern Chinese. We try to do an overall survey on the usages of the marked hypothetical complex sentences in modern Chinese, on the basis of collecting and arranging the documents. From the point of the changes of the hypothetical complex sentences in four periods of modern Chinese, we investigate the usages and diachronic changes of the markers in different types of hypothetical complex sentences, including the markers in the anterior segment of the complex sentences and in the posterior. Besides, we investigate the positions of the subjects and the markers preposed.This paper includes seven chapters, and the contents of each chapter are as follows:Chapter 1 is the introduction. In this chapter, we introduce the background, the purposes, the significances, the scopes, the situations, the documents and the methods of this paper, and we define the basic conceptions of the hypothetical complex sentence.In chapter 2, We briefly introduce the hypothetical complex sentences in modern Chinese, and we summarize the features of the marked and unmarked hypothetical complex sentences, the features of preposed markers and postposed markers, the sense relationship between modifier clauses and main clauses, and the constitution forms of the hypothetical complex sentences.In chapter 3, We study the markers of the hypothetical complex sentences in modern Chinese. The existing studies are not comprehensive enough. This paper intends to do an overall investigation on the hypothetical markers in modern Chinese, including preposed markers, postposed markers and markers in the posterior segment. We collect these markers exhaustively and describe their characters. We introduce the usages of markers in the anterior segment(including preposed markers and postposed markers) and those in the posterior segment, analyze the usages of “single markers”, using just one marker, and “double markers”, using markers in both modifier clause and main clause. We also discuss the meaning classification of the hypothetical markers and discriminate some hypothetical markers.In chapter 4, We turn to the origins of the hypothetical markers in modern Chinese, illustrating the arising times of the preposed markers and postposed markers, explaining their grammaticalization.In chapter 5, We talk about the positions of the subjects in the hypothetical complex sentences. The position of a subject here refers to the relative position of the subject and the hypothetical marker in a hypothetical complex sentence. Besides, we analyze the appearance and disappearance of the subjects in the hypothetical complex sentences, and the sentences without subjects.In chapter 6, We compare the hypothetical complex sentences in different periods of modern Chinese. We explore the features of the diachronic development of the hypothetical complex sentences by investigating these sentences in modern Chinese overall. We summarize the rules of the diachronic development, and discuss the relative phenomena.Chapter 7 is the conclusion. We make a conclusion and point out the shortages of our study.