Metrical Study On The Conjunctions In A Dream Of Red Mansions

A Dream of Red Mansions is one of the most reliable document literature which can reflect the basic usage of Chinese function words during the middle of the 18th century.Let us have a scan of the function words system of A Dream of Red Mansions, and discuss the grammatical meaning and usage with the metrology statistic method, we can master the use of function words at the time. And it is of great importance to the research and understanding of Chinese language at the time.This thesis studies 151 conjunctions in the novel. Based on the semantic relations between clauses in compound sentences and between sentences in sentence clusters, these conjunctions are categorized into ten types. They are juxtaposition, progression, succession, choice, assumption, turning, condition, cause-effect, and purpose. The thesis also makes a metrical description and analysis of the usage and distribution of each conjunction.By means of quantitative and qualitative analysis, synchronic and diachronic study, macro and micro study, the thesis depicts the overall picture of conjunctions and the characteristics of the usage and distribution of them with statistic diagrams.Through analyzing,the general style and characteristic of the conjunctions of the novel are outlined: the amount is relatively great; the wording structure of polysyllabic conjunctions has been well improved and the polysyllabic feature is obvious; many synonymous conjunctions appear among the new words.