"How" And "why" Contrast To Inquiry

In contemporary Chinese language,"Zenme" and "Weishenme" are two interrogative pronouns that are not usually considered to be comparable. The reason is probably because of their distinct situation of usage that may first reflect in people’s mind. The interrogative pronoun "Zenme" asks question about method and situation, while "Weishenme" largely concerns about the reasons and objectives behind.However, to enquire reasons is one of the most important usages of the interrogative pronoun "Zenme" that cannot be neglected. It is evident to see from the book Eight Hundred Words in Contemporary Chinese Language that the interrogative pronoun "Zenme" followed by verb or adjective can be used when enquiring reasons and used as a replacement of "Weishenme" in this situation.Given this, the proposed study will try to analysis these two interrogative pronouns in terms of their grammar, semantic and pragmatics. Then, further comparison will be made based on the analysis, attempting to identify their differences more clearly. Beside the ontology analysis, this research will carried among subjects from intermediate level Chinese learners of Shaanxi Normal University International College of Chinese Studies, who are expected to complete a designed questionnaire regarding using "Zenme" and "Weishenme", the two interrogative pronouns. The aim of the questionnaire is to find how well the targeted intermediate level Chinese learners are, in mastering the usage of "Zenme" and "Weishenme" and to discover the potential problems to be solved. The proposed study, relying on both the ontology analysis and further questionnaire research, is expected to supporting contemporary Chinese language teaching in real practice.Analysis of the research will be supported by large amount of linguistic data which mainly referenced from the Peking University CCL contemporary Chinese Language and the Ancient Chinese Corpus, which interpreted as corpus in the passage. The rest of the linguistic data in less proportion is sourced from other references. Specifically, the first chapter provides general introduction regarding previous related studies and the worth of this study. Furthermore, a more detailed research approach is proposed.The second chapter mainly explains the characteristics of syntactic distribution of "Zenme" and "Weishenme". Then, analysis is carried out depending on the linguistic data from corpus of Peking University. Their different syntax is presented though form of data.The third chapter is a deeper discussion of "Zenme" and "Weishenme" within the context of their origination. Depending on previous studies, the research focuses on the origination of their meaning, the changes of their semantic in different period of time, by applying a large amount of ancient Chinese language linguistic data. It later compares and analysis the meanings of "Zenme" and "Weishenme".The forth chapter concerns about different pragmatics of "Zenme" and "Weishenme". Specifically,"Zenme" tends to be more colloquial compared with "Weishenme". What is more, people are considered to have pre-assumptions when using "Zenme"The fifth chapter proposes suggestions on Chinese language teaching after identifying the existing obstacles of learning "Zenme" and "Weishenme" though analyzing questionnaire-responses from foreign students who study contemporary Chinese.