A Pragmatic Function Analysis On Modality Adverbs Of "Jingran" Category

Modality adverb is one category of the adverbs which is more important and complicated than another categories. But most scholars used to lay special emphasis only on the syntax and semantics. We select three of the typical modality adverbs of the"Jingran"category:"竟","竟然","居然",use the theory of pragmatics and functionism, try to analyse their typical pragmatic functions comprehensively. The body of the paper is divided into six parts:PartⅠ,Introduction.This part gives a definition of the target of our study,generalizes many scholars'research on the status, explains the method of study and the source of the linguistics material, clarifies the main thread of the paper.In partⅡ,the author analyses the information functions of"Jingran"category. We introduce an idea which we named as"background knowledge"and analyse the difference between the expected information and unexpected information. We also consider that the two kinds of information are exactly reverse which we named as"reverse presupposition"rule. Finally ,we draw a conclusion that the focal information in the sentence is the unexpected information which is exactly what the speaker try to lay stress on.PartⅢgives an analysis of texual functions. This part analyses the problem that how all of the information form into a text or a paragraph. First,we differ the cohesion from coherence.In the part of"cohesion", we analyse some formal characteristics when this kind of adverb used in a text; In the part of"coherence",we find a semantic model and discuss the reason why some clause can be ellipsised in the model. At last, we make an investigation into the modality adverbs to analyse that what language style they can fit for.PartⅣanalyses the expressive functions.In another word,we should discuss the effectivity and result after we express the information. we classify this function into three categoriers: moodal function,subjective function and rhetoric function. In modal function, we differentiate mood from tone. In subjective function, we find two facts that lie in the pragmatic phenomena we named as"differences in amount of subjectivity"and"differences in the degree of subjectivity". In rhetoric function,we find them always associated with rhetoric principles and figures of speech when they are used in some special sentences.In partⅤ,we discuss the internal and external causes which lead to this kind of pragmatic phenomena. On the one hand, we think the syntax and semantics exert great influence on the pragmatics from the internal aspect of the language. On the other hand, we try to look for explanations from the external aspect of the language such as cognition and metapragmatics. According to cognition, we get a thread from our investigation which we named"chance→comparison→subjectivity". Besides ,we also can explain this phenomenon from the aspect of metapragmatics.The end part is the conclusion.In this part,we look back on some main ideas in the paper, summarize some rules that are closely linked with the pragmatics function, and point out some issues which still have not been settled.The creation of this the paper lies in :(1),We analyse three informational functions and try to explain the relations among them.(2),we try to analyse the texual functions as comprehensively as possible.(3),we classify the expressive function according to their characteristics.(4),we analyse some internal causes and external causes which lie in the pragmatic functions. Especially ,we also think we raised the level the paper's theory from the perspectives of cognition and metapragmatics.