An Analysis Of Negative Words In Outlaws Of The Marsh

Abstract: The study of negative words and their related issues has become a hot issue among modern Chinese scholars today, and these scholars have made a deep analysis about them and thus produced fruitful achievements. Comparing to that of in the field of negative words in modern Chinese which has more than thousand history, however, the related researches are not ideal not only in the depth but also in the scope. Depending on the research ideas, results and methods of modern cognitive linguistics, the thesis, by means of exhaustive analysis and diachronic comparison, will focus on negative words used in Outlaws of the Marsh (the 120-chapter edition and the detailed information will be explained below), and try to make beneficial exploration on the track of diachronic evolution of Chinese negative words. Basing on many corpuses in Outlaws of the Marsh, the thesis applies the related concepts and theories of functional linguistics, semantics and pragmatics, and makes detailed description and analysis about negative adverbs appeared in the novel. The thesis is composed of five chapters except the introduction. The introduction part is about the object, significance, methods and status of this study. Chapter One discusses the category of negative word"No", including the following six words"Bu","Wu","Fou","Po","Wang"and"Mi"."Bu"is the most flexible word, which can be used singly or in combination. Chapter Two talks about the category of negative word"Not", including"Wei","Mei"and their related synthesis, such as"Wei Ceng","Wei Chang","Wei De"and"Mei You". Chapter Three analyzes the category of negative word"non", including"Fei","Wu Fei","Chu Fei""Ruo Fei"and"Mo Fei"etc. Chapter Four discusses the category of negative word"Do not", including"Mo","Xiu","Wu"and"Wu", which are mainly used to show prohibition. Since there are different ways of classification among negative words, the thesis uses quartering method which is preferred by Yang Rongxiang, Zhang Bin and Zhang Yisheng. Chapter Five analyzes the status and process of negative words used in Outlaws of the Marsh in the history of Chinese negative words. The conclusion part remarks the innovation and discovery of the thesis, and points out the shortcomings in it as well.