"journey To The West" Adverb Study

Journey to the West is one of the Four Great classical Chinese novels. It was based on a true story of a famous Chinese monk, Xuan Zang, with the help of folktales and the creation of many folk artists. The language in this novel is based on the dialects used in the areas along the Changjiang River and Huaihe River, so it has a rich flavor of life. Most of existing research on this novel is conducted from the angle of literature, while the research of language just puts emphasis on correction of words. There is not much grammar research on this novel. Therefore, it is significant to study the modal adverbs in Journey to the West, which will give an impulse to the research on grammar in this novel.In synchronic level, the system of modal adverbs in Journey to the West is quite good, so it can partly reflect some characteristics of modal adverbs in the same times. In diachronic level, the modal adverbs in Journey to the West forms a connecting link between the modal adverbs in the middle ancient Chinese and those in modern Chinese. The usage of some modal adverbs in Journey to the West has more development than it in the middle ancient Chinese, and the usage of some modal adverbs in modern Chinese can be found clues in Journey to the West. So, the research on modal adverbs in Journey to the West is of great significance to the study of modal adverbs in the same times and the development of modal adverbs.In this thesis, we classify 128 modal adverbs into six categories. We make a detailed description and comparative analysis of their use in Journey to the West, and then study the origins of each modal adverb. We analyze their use in modem Chinese and drive some reliable conclusions.