A Study Of The Non-querying Interrogative Pronoun "Shenme (什么)" And Its Relevant Structures

The thesis mainly studies the non-querying interrogative pronoun "Shenme(什么)" and its relevant structures.The research is composed of two parts: 1)An overall investigation of developing venation of non-querying "Shenme(什么)" by investigating representative works in each era. Meanwhile, the paper tries hard to deduce the universal laws from the cognitive linguistic point of view through the description of other languages and dialects. It is found that there exists a chain that "Shenme(什么)"developed from interrogative to empty indication and then to arbitrary indication, from distinctive indication to substitutive indication.2)The relevant structures of non-querying "Shenme(什么)" are discussed. On one hand, the paper discusses the structure of reduplicative "Shenme(什么 ) " and pseudo-hard-wired structure "X Shenme(什么)Y" which are relevant to the empty indication, pointing out that reduplicative "Shenme(什么) " has the difference of adding substantial quantities and subjective quantities and whether "X Shenme(什么)Y" containing negative meaning or not depends on its context and psychological motive. On the other hand, the essay studies the unconditional concessive "Shuo(说) Shenme(什么)" constrictive sentence which is relevant to arbitrary indication, pointing out that it comes into being as a result of the generalization of "Shuo(说)", the strengthening of arbitrary indication of iiShenme(什么) the strong combinational and analogical function of 'Ye(也)" by means of reanalysis and analogy. It has the difference of syntactical, semantic and pragmatic from other concessive sentences.