Modern Chinese "modality

This thesis probes into the modality of modern Chinese "YAO"(要),especially the syntactical distribution,the semantic representations and the pragmatic functions of"YAO"(要),the constructions with "YAO"(要)and the modality connection of the different "YAO"(要)'s,in order to improve the comprehension of the modality of "YAO"(要).The thesis includes 9 chapters with about 48,000 characters in total.In chapter one,the introduction consists in the objects for examining,the significance of the research,the range of argument,the approach of analyzing and the explanation of the corpora's origin.The second chapter trims the mainstream viewpoint of"YAO"(要)adopted in the academies,including the differences of"YAO"(要)and the grammatical function of"YAO"(要).The third chapter argues about the theoretical problems of modality,including the concept of modality,the types of modality and the modality semantics of modern Chinese "YAO"(要).The fourth chapter explores the syntactic distributions of modern Chinese "YAO" as well as their semantic connections.The fifth chapter argues "YAO"(要)'s modality problems in pivotal sentence and argues that modern Chinese "YAO"(要)'s modality semantics is deontic modatity [obligation].The specific items are the subjective necessity and the objective necessity. The former one is N1 exerts obligation on N2 to "VP",while the latter one is N1 compels N2 to do VP with some objective material conditions.Having compared "YAO"(要)in pivotal sentence and "YAO"(要)as an ordinary modal verb,we proved that "YAO"(要)of pivotal sentence is at the middle stage between the premodal and the modal.The sixth chapter explores "YAO"(要)'s modality problems in comparative sentences with the view that the most important modality semantic of this is epistemic modality.The reasons are that sentences with "YAO"(要)represent a possible world; the different epistemic modality meanings which are shown by "YAO"(要)are compatible with different ensuring contexts.What's more,we have also explored "YAO BI(要比)……"and "BI(比)……YAO(要)",and found that these two conditions had different points in the linguistic economic rules and language-users's cognitive perspective.The different places that "YAO"(要)occupies have different emphasis in semantics,and different linguistic patterns reflect different cognitive structure.Having analysed the corpora,we found that "YAO"(要)is incompatible with negation due to the necessary deducing.In chapter seven,we explore "YAO"(要)and the future tense with the major analysis:That sentences like "YAO XIA YU LE."(要下雨了)have the future tense is because "YAO"(要)has the function to convey the future tense rather then the whole "YAO……LE"(要……了)structure.The "YAO"(要)here is the compound of epistemic modality and future tense,and the "LE"(了)here is a marker of reality. However,the "YAO"(要)here is not a prototype in the future category but a bordering member.Because "YAO"(要)'s future tense is close to the reality,it is compatible with the realis marker "LE"(了).Synonyms of"YAO(要),JIANG(将),JIANG YAO(将要),KUAI YAO (快要),JIU YAO(就要)"is different in conveying the future tense.Some have the near future,while others have the far future.So the compatibility with "LE"(了)is also different.Though "YAO"(要)is closely related to the future tense,not all "YAO"(要) s which have epistemic modality have the future tense.We can use "JIANG"(将)to examine whether "YAO"(要)has the future tense.Not only is there future meaning in "YAO"(要)'s epistemic modality,but,in fact, "YAO"(要)in many situations have become the future marker generally.The future tense of"YAO"(要)is a continuum,which is epistemic modality only——compound of epistemic modality and future tense——future tense only.There are no contradictions between the future tense and the realis,because "YAO"(要)can be compatible with "LE"(了).We complemented two changeable situations which drew by Dai yaojing(1997)that things happening in the future have real feature.Our conclusion is that tings charged by modality are virtual realis.The eighth chapter explores the relation between "YAO"(要)and hypothesis. Our view is that "YAO"(要)and hypothesis are not contradict.Though "YAO"(要) in hypothesis sentences is no more a modal verb,it can also convey modality. Conjunctions can also be the method to convey modality.The relation between "YAO"(要)and hypothesis is as follows:"YAO"(要)developed from the typical modality semantics to the hypothesis conjunction with the modality semantics,and then continued developing with the modality semantics going away,and at last it become a pure hypothesis conjunction.Chapter 9 is the conclusion,summarizes the main ideas of the thesis.