The Investigation On "RuGuo(如果)" Structure And Hypothetical Conjunctions Related To It From Various Perspectives

There is large variety of conjunctions in Chinese, which is one of distinguished characters, differed from other languages. From Han Dynasty, the Chinese linguists had been doing the systematic research on the meanings of these conjunctions and their traces of evolution, we often call this kind of research"Lexical—item—to—morpheme Perspective". It has some similarity in grammaticalization ,which had been prevalent lately. The difference between them is that: Nowadays, the research domain of grammaticalization, besides morphology, also include the grammatical phenomena of syntax, discourse and pragmatics, it has more potential value to exploit."RuGuo(如果)"is one of the hypothetical conjunctions which appear frequently in contemporary Chinese, it has coherent and typical trace of evaluation and development. So my study will focus on"RuGuo(如果)", researching it in synchronic and diachronic perspectives in the method combined with Lexical—item—to—morpheme and grammaticalization.On synchronic level, we will lay our emphasis on the evolution of"RuGuo(如果)"chronologically. A number of questions arise:"How the two content words'Ru(如)'and'Guo(果)'evaluated into a unified hypothetical conjunction'RuGuo(如果)?'""How to divide its evolution period?""Whether the typical grammatical phenomena--- metaphor and metonymy appeared in its evolution or not?"The most important is, whether the conclusions we drew from the research of"RuGuo(如果)"are suitable for other hypothetical conjunctions? If not, why? Hence, in following part of research, we will also conclude the evolution of other hypothetical conjunctions, compared their similarities and differences with"RuGuo(如果)". According to the research of the initial stage, we found that on the same circumstances and contexts, different individuals would use different hypothetical conjunctions. On one hand, these kinds of choices were decided by the speaker's attitudes and concerns to the event. On the other hand, it related to the elements which including the family background of speakers, their educational level and so on. We can find some explanation of this phenomenon according to the cognitive processing of speaker; and the theories of Figure and Ground, Frames and Scripts in cognitive linguistics will also be helpful to my research. What's more, in order to make my research more interesting, I will make some questionnaires to collect practical language material as much as I can. When we deliberate"RuGuo(如果)"in its grammaralized evolution, we will consider about its subjective element in the meantime. Traugott(1995) believed that almost all processes of grammalization conclude the subjective elements, because the language not only express the meaning of sentences objectively but also express the viewpoint, emotion and attitude of the speaker. We initially divided the sentences which included"RuGuo(如果)"into four groups by the strength of emotion it expressed (1) Express meaning of sentence objectively; (2) Include the attitude of the speaker; (3) Stress the special emotion of the speaker (mostly be used in interrogative sentences and exclamatory sentences; (4) Include implications. In Langacker's theory of cognitive grammar, he suggested an important regulation of subjective element, that is, when the event in objective circumstances got the highest degree of focus and prominence, trajectory, which act as the typical Agent, Experiencer or Actor, become the most dynamic element, while the subjective initiative of speaker become weaker; It also take effect in opposite situation. Then, we will extend our research to the domain of discourse. Influenced by subjective element,"RuGuo(如果)"has formed some regular sentence structures, such as"RuGuoShuo…(如果说)""RuGuo…deHua(如果…的话)". They are also valuable for us to analysis.In following part of my proposed research-------analysis the application of"RuGuo(如果)"on diachronic level. Firstly, we noticed the focus prominence function of"RuGuo(如果)". From the Chinese date we have collected, we found that the place of"RuGuo(如果)"in sentence is very flexible, it can almost appear before every composition of the sentence. In the sentence,"RuGuo(如果)"always act as the signal of prominence; It emphasizes the following part of it. Next, our research will extend to"RuGuo(如果)"clause, we will analysis it from its cognitive and logic germ, in this way, we could understand its pragmatic meanings more easily. Different places of"RuGuo(如果)"in sentence have their specific pragmatic meanings, it is an effective tool for speakers to express their special emotions, such as to express their meanings more indirectly or more strongly. Secondly, we will focus our research on the semantic content of"RuGuo(如果)"clause, the compound sentences which contain"RuGuo(如果)"clause are always made up of two parts------ one is declarative clause and the other is"RuGuo(如果)"clause. In generally speaking,"RuGuo(如果)"clause always express the meaning opposite to the meaning expressed by declarative clause. In the other word, if declarative clause affirms something,"RuGuo(如果)"clause always negates it; If declarative clause negate something,"RuGuo(如果)"clause always affirm it. What's more, the function of"RuGuo(如果)"clause is various, Sometimes, it is the complement of declarative clause, sometimes it emphasize or weaken the meaning expressed by declarative clause. The book Symmetry and Asymmetry Between Affirmation and Negation gives me lots of inspirations, though the book mainly discusses the phenomena of symmetry and asymmetry on lexicon, some fundamentals and principles in this book can also be used to explain the subjective sentence, especially to"RuGuo(如果)"clause.In the last part of my proposed research, in order to make my paper more completely and systematically, I am supposed to divide subjective sentences, which contain hypothetical relationship into two groups------the sentences contain the obvious hypothetical conjunctions and the ones express their hypothetical relationship by other ways. On the basis of this division, we will draw an overall conclusion of our research about hypothetical conjunctions according to their origination, characters of grammar and their application.