A Comparative Research On Chinese And Italian Modal Adverbs Of Probability

This paper’s research field includes the Chinese adverbs “大概、大约、也许、恐怕”. Firstly, we carried out a contrastive analysis between these four adverbs andthe corresponding Italian adverbs; secondly, in order to better understand how muchItalian students usually learn about these words, we conducted a survey research onforty-one Italian students of intermediate or advanced level. Finally, basing on thetheoretical contrastive analysis’ results and the survey’s results, we attempted tosuggest some teaching strategies concerning “大概、大约、也许、恐怕” targeted forItalian learners. This paper is divided in four Chapters.In Chapter One the research field is decided on the four adverbs “大概、大约、也许、恐怕”, we explain the reasons for the subject’s choice and the purpose andmethods of this research paper. Among the parts of speech of contemporary Chinese,adverbs are the most open to argument. This is especially true for modal adverbs,which include words with marked semantic differences between them and with verypeculiar syntactic characteristics. In order to make a contrastive analysis, wenarrowed the research field first to the adverbs of probability, because thissubcategory exists in both Chinese and Italian, then to “大概、大约、也许、恐怕”,because they are very close to each other in meaning and there aren’t perfectlycorresponding adverbs in Italian, so that it’s arduous for Italian students to understandthe differences in their meaning and use. Finally, this chapter pictures an outline ofthe existing research focused on Chinese modal adverbs and Italian adverbs.Chapter Two first summarizes the specific existing research about “大概、大约、也许、恐怕”, sorted into three branches-semantic, syntactic and pragmatic. Thesemantic field’s research concerns the definition of modal adverbs and adverbs ofprobability, their subcategorization and the semantic traits of the four adverbs “大概、大约、也许、恐怕”. The syntactic field’s research concerns the distribution of thesefour adverbs in the sentence, their semantic functions (directly affected by theirposition in the sentence), their free-standing usage and their ability to appear with other adverbs and with other parts of the speech. The pragmatic field’s researchmostly concerns their usage in different types of sentences.In the second part of this chapter is summarized the specific existing researchabout Italian adverbs of probability. The semantic field’s research concerns theirsubcategorization based on their semantic characteristics, the definition of “大概、大约、也许、恐怕” provided by Chinese-Italian dictionaries and the semantic traits ofthe corresponding Italian adverbs. The syntactic field’s research concerns these Italianadverbs’ subcategorization based on their syntactic characteristics, their distributionin the sentence，their ability to appear with other adverbs and with other parts of thespeech and their free-standing usage. The pragmatic field’s research mostly concernstheir usage in different types of sentences.Finally, we carry out a contrastive analysis of these Chinese and Italian adverbs.Chapter Three presents the survey research conducted on Italian students’learning situation of “大概、大约、也许、恐怕”. The survey consists of a questionnaireand targeted forty-one Italian students of intermediate or advanced level. Thequestionnaire counts thirty-three questions and is made up of four multiple-choicetasks, that consist in choosing the most appropriate adverb, choosing the mostappropriate position in the sentence for the given adverb, marking the wrong sentenceamong three given and determining whether the given sentences are correct or not.The survey’s results show how Italian students’ main gaps in learning “大概、大约、也许、恐怕” belong to the semantic and syntactic fields.In Chapter four we summarize the results of the theoretical contrastive analysisand the survey’s results, finding out that they all prove how Italian students’ maindifficulties in learning “大概、大约、也许、恐怕” are originated by the inaccuratetranslation provided by Chinese-Italian dictionaries and by some relevant semanticand syntactic differences between these Chinese and Italian adverbs of probability.On this basis, we design a teaching plan for the four Chinese adverbs, that focuses ona more accurate translation and semantic explanation of these words and on arrangingefficiently the syntactic contents’ teaching in the intermediate and advanced stages.