| On the basis of Langacker's basic concepts and theories,such as Force-Dynamics,Grounding,ICM,Evolutionary Momentum,and the theory of subjectivity,this paper focused on the description of the construal process of some typical modal verbs in modern Chinese.After the investigation on their meaning,modality and typical characteristics,this paper from the perspective of cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology deeply explored the grounding phenomenon,the Force-Dynamic model,the conceptual construal process,the mental space model and the subjectivity features of different Chinese typical modal verbs.The dissertation consists of 10 chapters.The first chapter is the introduction,which mainly introduced the research object,meaning,methodology,sources of the corpus as well as the research review of the modern Chinese modal verbs at home and abroad.The second chapter mentioned the literature review,which dealt with in details the introduction of Langacker's cognitive theories,such as Force-Dynamics,Grounding,ICM and the theory of subjectivity.From the third chapter to the ninth chapter,the typical modern Chinese Modal Verbs "Yao(?)","Neng(?)","Hui(?)","Ken(?)","Yinggai(??)","Keyi(??)","Gan(?)",were discussed respectively.In terms of the semantic and modality meanings of the seven typical modern Chinese Modal Verbs,we found that:the modal verb "Yao(?)" had 5 kinds of meanings and 3 kinds of modality;"Neng(?)" consisted of 5 kinds of meanings and 3 kinds of modality;"Hui(?)" 3 kinds of meanings and 3 kinds of modality;"Ken(?)" 2 kinds of meanings and 2 kinds of modality;"Yinggai(??)" 2 kinds of meanings and 2 kinds of modality;"Keyi(??)" 4 kinds of meanings and 3 kinds of modality;"gan(?)",4 kinds of meanings and 3 kinds of modality.The most typical instances of "Yao(?)" were used in the affirmative statement.The exclamatory sentences are the second typical instances.The most typical instances of "Neng(?)"were used in the affirmative and negative statements.The interrogative sentences were the second typical instances.The atypical usage lay in the exclamatory sentences.The most typical instances of "Hui(?)",were used in the affirmative statements.The second typical instances were shown in the negative statements.The atypical usage lay in the interrogative and exclamatory sentences.The most typical instances of "Ken(?)" were used in the negative statements.The affirmative statements were the second typical instances.The atypical usage lay in the interrogative and exclamatory sentences.The most typical instances of "Keyi(??)”were used in the affirmative statements.The atypical usage lay in the interrogative and exclamatory sentences.The most typical instances of "Yinggai(??)”were used in the affirmative statements.The atypical usage lay in the interrogative and exclamatory sentences.The most typical instances of "Gan(?)" were used in the negative statements.The interrogative and exclamatory sentences were the second typical instances.The atypical usage lay in the imperative sentences.In the analysis of the force-dynamic model,the concept construal process and the mental space model of modern Chinese modal verbs based on Grounding theory,all the dynamic modality of the modern Chinese modal verbs showed the willingness of the subjective psych force,the source and the agent of force were the same with the patient,the executor of the force.The difference was the subjective internal force of different typical modal verbs may derive from the agents' willingness or ability,intrinsic attributes,or the external conditions,external evidence and other different grounding factors which were not presented in the language.The modal force of the dynamic modal which was launched by the agents might be either positive or negative.Positive force might force people to sweep aside obstacles to implement an action,and the reverse force of the negative force compelled the receivers to set up obstacles so as to impede people to implement an action.All the deontic modality reflected the external force of morality.The source of force of deontic modality "Yao(?)" was different from the patient,the executor of the obligation,which represented in grammar with the subject of the sentence as other persons excluding the speaker.The deontic modality of the "Neng(?)" expressed the permission authority of the speaker or the licensed authority of some social norms.The source of force was different from the patient,the executor of the obligation,which represented in grammar with the other persons except the speaker as the subject of the sentence.The deontic modality "Hui(?)" was the social moral obligation imposed to the speaker,which represented in grammar with the speaker as the subject of the sentence.The source,the agent of force was the same with the patient,the executor of the force,all of which were shown in the utterance,on stage.Deontic modality "Yinggai(??)"expressed the moral obligation imposed to the speaker or to the listener or the third person.The source,the agent of force could be either the same with or different from the patient,the executor of the force,which represented in grammar with either the speaker or other persons excluding the speaker as the subject of the sentence.The speaker of the deontic modality "Keyi(??)”was the agent of force,given permission to the listener.The source,the agent of force was not shown in the utterance,off stage.The source,the agent of force was different from the patient,the executor of the force.The speaker of the deontic modality "Gan(?)" launched instructions or requirements to the listener.The speaker was not shown in the utterance,off stage.The source,the agent of force was different from the patient,the executor of the force.The source and the force of epistemic modality of all the typical modal verbs were blurred,and the modal force turned into the evolutionary momentum.Under the effect of external evidences,the speaker made inference and evaluation on the possibility of a proposition.The modal verbs,by means of grounding,were conceptualized by the conceptual subject with the most subjective construal.The root modality "Keyi(??)" was similar to the root modality"Neng(?)",both of which had the similar semantic classification,the dynamic model,the conceptual structure model and the mental spaces.However,there is a great difference between epistemic modality "Keyi(??)" and "Neng(?)" in terms of the typical syntactic environment.The most typical syntactic environment of epistemic modality "Neng(?)" is the rhetorical question,and that of the epistemic modality "Keyi(??)" is the declarative mood."On the construction of psychological space,the dynamic modality of all typical modals involved two spaces:the reality space and the attitude space.Deontic modality consisted of three spaces:the reality space,the assessment space and the attitude space.Epistemic modality included the reality space and potentiality spaces.The dynamic modality of all the typical modal verbs showed the strong will or the strong ability to act in terms of the attitude space,which resulted in the high likelihood of expected conduct.The deontic modality "Gan(?)" reflected the comparably weak directive indication,and the expectation of the possibility of the obligation realization was weakened.In addition,the deontic modality of all the other modal verbs showed strong directive indication,and the expectation of the possibility of the obligation realization was high.The anticipation of the possibility of the epistemic modality of all typical modals was affected by the quantity of external evidence.With the accumulation of external evidence,the possibility of occurrence of a proposition became higher.Furthermore,from the analysis based on the ICM,the model verb "Yao(?)","Neng(?)","Hui(?)","Ken(?)","Yinggai(??)","Keyi(??)”,"Gan(?)",from the root modality to epistemic modality,pushed the event that was located in the known reality or the immediate reality along the timeline to irreality.This feature also explains why the modal verbs in modern Chinese grammar should not be modified by words like "le(?)","guo(?)”and "zhe(?)",which indicate the past tense or the progressive aspect.The root modality of some typical modal verbs could locate the speech event in the unknown reality close to the immediate reality,which is inconsistent with the conclusion of Yang Limei(2014).The analysis on the basis of the theory of subjectivity found that although the dynamic modality of modal verbs was mostly objectively represented with unobvious subjectivity,it was actually subjective.It was true to their deontic and epistemic modality.Whatever modality,the participants in the process affected the subjectivity of the speech event.In the aspect of the subjectivity of the deontic modality,the modal verb "Hui(?)" and "Gan(?)" had only subjective construal.The deontic and epistemic modality of other typical modal verbs(except those who did not have deontic modality)could be construed both subjectively and objectively.The typical modern Chinese Modal Verbs featured the differences within and among different modality meanings in terms of subjective and objective construal,which formed a gradient continuum of Subjectivity.Referring to the subjective continuum,the subjectivity of modal verbs differed among different modality meanings because their modal forces and conceptual structures were various.From the dynamic modality to the deontic modality and to the modal meaning,the subjectivity of the modal verb is gradually changed from weak to strong.The dynamic modality showed the weakest subjectivity,which was mostly presented as the description or statement of objectivity,and embodied the willingness or ability of modal verbs.From deontic modality to epistemic modality,the meaning of willingness or ability of modal verbs was gradually weakened and the subjectivity was gradually enhanced.The epistemic modality,basically lost the meaning of willingness or ability,with the strongest subjectivity,mainly expressed the subjective speculation or speculation.The tenth chapter is the Conclusion,which summed up the main research findings. |
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