A Study On The Functions Of Chinese Character Hao

As one of the most frequently used words in Chinese vocabulary, the Chinese word Hao (好) is a word with multiple meanings and functions.Based on functional grammar proposed by Halliday and grammaticalisation theory formulated by Hopper & Traugott, an integral analysis of the functions of Hao is undertaken. The present study is mainly composed of two parts: the categorization of the functions of Hao and the evolutionary process of functions of Hao.In the first part of study, the categorization of the functions of Hao is firstly undertaken according to Halliday's model of three Metafunctions. At Experiential level, Hao is"Process","Participant"or"Circumstance"and is realized as verb, noun, adjective or adverb, which are word classes at lexico-grammar stratum. At this level, Hao has propositional meaning and expresses the content of world thus has truth value. The core meaning of Hao is"positively evaluating something", from which other meanings originate. At Textual and Interpersonal level, Hao is"Continuative"and"Modal Adjunct"respectively, and is realized as interjection or discourse marker. Hao at these two levels has the meaning of procedure rather than proposition. Specifically, Hao at the Textual level serves as a Closing/Shifting marker contributing to the cohesion of the text; at the Interpersonal level, Hao serves as an Interacting marker and performs the functions of establishing, keeping or breaking the relationship between speakers.The second part of the study further explores the evolvement of its different functions. It is a phenomenon of generalization that Hao develops from its core meaning"good"into various functions. In this part, Hopper & Traugott's theory of grammaticalisation is employed, namely, principles of grammaticalisation, generalization, tendency of semantic change. In case of Hao, grammaticalisation proceeds along three different paths, namely, the development from an adjective into a resultive complement and then into a phase mark, the development from an adjective into a degree adverb, and the development from an adjective into an interjection/discourse marker.It can be observed that these different uses of Hao are closely related to one another, as they all evolve from the adjective Hao. In the process of generalization, Hao is shown to have undergone semantic change. It originally means"good", and then arrives at its new senses of"satisfactory","very"and"finished". Since the variants of Hao coexist contemporaneously in Modern Chinese, it can be viewed as a case of polysemy.