The Study Of Modal Particles At The End Of Sentences In "Mencius"

"Mencius" , a relatively long one among all Zhu Zi prose , is characterized by strong literariness and argumentativeness. It was written in spoken language with abundant modal particle and is majestic with vigor, which is of great help in the judgment and analysis of the modal particle. Referring to the Pre-Qin studies on modal particle, this paper carried out statistics on the entire modal particle at the end of sentences and analyzed them by classification. As far as the modal particle at the end of sentences in "Mencius" is concerned, the following findings are obtained:1. There are thirteen modal particles at the end of sentences used separately, namely, "也", "矣, "已", "焉", "耳", "而已", "尔", "乎", "与", "诸", "哉","夫", "兮" . Another thirteen modal particles at the end of sentences used two together includes: "已矣", "耳矣", "而已矣", "云尔", "乎尔", "也乎","矣乎","云乎", "乎来", "乎哉", "也哉", "为哉", "矣夫". In addition, two modal particles at the end of sentences used three together are "焉耳矣" and "也已和" .2. "也" , "矣", "乎", "哉", "与" are the high-frequency words among the modal particles at the end of sentences in "Mencius" . "诸", "焉", "耳"," 已" are less frequent and they appear tens of times. On the contrary, "兮", "而已", "尔", "夫" are used much less, they occur less than five times. The modal particles at the end of sentences used two or three together, except "而 已矣" , which appears 49 times, are counted not more than five times.3. The modal particles at the end of sentences in "Mencius" : "也" , "矣" , "焉" are mostly used in declarative sentence. "已" , "耳" , "而已", "尔" are only used in declarative sentence and by no means in other moodsentences. "乎" is mostly used in interrogative sentences and is often found to be used in yes-no questions and retorting interrogatives. "与" is only used in interrogatives, often in yes-no questions. "诸" is only used in interrogatives, mostly in yes-no questions. "哉" is mainly used in retorting interrogatives, which is the interrogative without doubts, thus taking the implication of exclamation. "夫"和"兮" are only used in exclamatory sentences. There are no modal particles specifically used in imperative sentences in"Mencius" except "也" and "矣" that are sometimes used in imperative sentences.4. The modal particles at the end of sentences: "已矣" , "耳矣" , "而已 矣", "焉耳矣", "也已矣", "云尔", "乎尔" are only used together in declarative sentences. And "也乎" , "矣乎" , "云乎" , "乎来" , "乎哉" , "也哉" , "为哉" are only used in interrogative sentences, mostly in retorting interrogatives. What is especially emphasized is: when "哉" is at the very end of sentences with other modal particles, the sentence is generally an interrogative, mostly a retorting interrogative instead of exclamatory one. "矣夫" is only used in exclamatory sentence. There' s no the phenomenon of modal particles used together in imperative sentences.5. The modal particle itself that plays the role of emphasizing certain mood doesn' t indicate any mood, which is determined by the pattern of the sentence or the context. Generally speaking, every of the modal particles used together has its own function and the mood type of the sentence is up to the last modal particle.