An Exploration On Modern Chinese Interrogative Adverbs

Content:Modern Chinese interrogative adverb is a special category of the adverb.This article studied on the origin of 17 interrogative adverbs which contained in the Modern Chinese Dictionary(the fifth edition)."qi" always used as euphemistic tone and in modern Chinese,"mo-bushi" always used as speculative tone.The formation of the other 15 interrogative adverbs have gone though a complex process.They have systematization on pronunciation,but difference and same on formation.The formation of the tone adverb "nandao","moX"("mofei","mo-bushi")"heX" "qiX"(except "qizhi") was mainly due to the impact of the syntactic position.they often use together,and in the adverbial position,so that they gradually grammaticalized into adverbs. In spoken language,"qi'","ke" and "ju" are not common,"qi" and "ju" tend to written language,and "ju" tends to dialect.The formative clues of these interrogative adverbs are more clear,and the interrogative mood have appeared in ancient Chinese,which is earlier than more syllable adverb's.More syllable interrogative adverbs have appeared in medieval and modern Chinese.From ancient pronunciation,they all belong to laryngeal tone.It can be seen that the development of language has a systematization.The formation of "moX","heX","qiX" and single syllable interrogative adverbs' systematization have all explained this point.Exploring the source of modern Chinese interrogative adverbs could make us know them deeply and use them freely.