Study On The Rhetorical Questions In 《Jinpingmei Cihua》

The rhetorical questions in 《Jinpingmei Cihua》include all kinds of interrogative structure forms: yes-or-no question, specific interrogative question, alternative question and positive-negative question. The frequency of these four kinds of structure forms is different from each other: the specific interrogative question is the most, the yes-or-no question is less while the alternative question and the positive-negative question is the least. Most parts of yes-or-no questions are not used with rhetorical adverbs. There are several kinds of rhetorical questions without rhetorical adverbs, such as "Hai Bu VP?""Gan Bu VP?""S Bu Shi NP?" The rhetorical adverbs are: Qi,Mofei,Mobu,Nandao,Que,Ke,Meide,Duande,Bucheng,Zhongbucheng, etc. The frequency of these rhetorical adverbs is also different from each other, of which the ancient adverb "Qi"is mostly used and often appears in the rhetorical questions with flavour of classic Chinese; the burgeoning word "Mobu" in modern Chinese is used more, and the word "Mofei,Nandao" are seldom used. And the rhetorical adverb"Bucheng"has almost become a interrogative modal particle at the end of a sentence and it often echoes with the words "Mofei,Mobu,Nandao". The specific interrogative question consists of two sorts: one is used together with the words like "Zen,Shen,Na,He"etc.while the other is often used with the words like "Yan,An,Hu,Shu " etc. Moreover, the specific interrogative question has the following notable characteristics:(1)the burgeoning interrogative pronouns like "Zen""Shen"have taken great part in modern Chinese; (2)Some interrogative pronouns in ancient Chinese and their later emerged compound forms like the words "Shui""He"are still existed; (3)some often used interrogative pronouns like "Yan,An,Hu,Shu"in ancient Chinese have almost disappearedin spoken Chinese; (4)there are few compound rhetorical questions; (5)some interrogative pronouns have lost their original meanings and only have negative functions now. Though the number of the alternative question and the positive-negative question is not large, it reflects the diversification of the structure forms of rhetorical question. In 《Jinpingmei Cihua》,some burgeoning words in modern Chinese, such as "Li, Me,Bucheng", are often used in spoken Chinese while the common words in ancient Chinese, such as"Hu,Zai,Ye",are only used at the end of rhetorical questions with strong flavour of classic Chinese. There are mainly six pragmatic functions of the rhetorical question in 《Jinpingmei Cihua》:(1)the kind of blaming and scolding; (2)the kind of pleading and refuting; (3)the kind of denouncing and mocking; (4)the kind of urging and commanding; (5)the kind of persuading and dissuading; (6)the kind of refusing and showing modesty. And the relation between the structure form of rhetorical question in 《Jinpingmei Cihua》and its pragmatic function is complex:the same structure form can embody many kinds of pragmatic function, and vice versa——the same pragmatic function can also be found in many structure forms of rhetorical question.Although there are many similarities between the rhetorical question in 《Jinpingmei Cihua》and that in comtemporary Chinese, the differences are also apparent. During the following several hundred years, the system of rhetorical question continues to change and regulate in the direction of modern Chinese, and finally forms the system of rhetorical question of modern Chinese.