Study On Grammatic And Pragmatic Function Of Definite And Indefinite

Referential property of nominals is a cutting-edge topic in the field of semantics, syntax, logic and other disciplines. Compared with other referential properties, definiteness (definite-indefinite) compose the most influence on grammatical forms and syntactic features. When the speaker expect that referents of the nominal is identifiable to the hearer, he will use definite nominal in referring. Otherwise, indefinite will be used. The difference between referential property of nominals in Chinese and Indo-European languages lies in whether there is a grammatical mark of definite in language. In Indo-European languages there is, while in Chinese, there is not. Grammatical form or syntactic function are two means for Chinese nominal reference. As nominal change its grammatical form as communication situation, or the speaker’s pragmatic intention varies, we can confirm that definite-indefinite is a syntactic-pragmatic concept, influenced by syntactic and pragmatic factors.This paper intends to discuss factors affect the speaker in choosing reference property and word form, and think about how to improve Chinese reference system to make it better in reflecting pragmatic function of definite and indefinite. Another task of this paper is to investigate the pragmatic and syntactic features of nominals in conversations, especially pragmatic features, based on which we intend to make comparison between spoken and written language.The spoken corpus we use in this article is the script of first 30 sets of television play, "xin shu". The script contains many scenes of daily life, and conversation participants are in different social relations. So it is an ideal choice for the paper. As Xu Liejiong (1990) said, "it is people who use language that are making reference, rather than the language they use ". Sketch in a little more of that, it is people who use language are giving pragmatic effect, rather than the language they use. We are also looking forward to get some results of how speaker give pragmatic effect in discourse.This paper consists of five chapters:The first chapter is the introduction part, we make explanation of the topic background, research building, research methods, innovation. With knowledge about current research state of this topic, we confirm the research purpose of our research.In the second chapter, we mainly do with interpretation of definite and indefinite. We make examples on different types of definite and indefinite, and further analyze the factors affect the speaker in choosing reference property and word form.In the third chapter, the author studies the characteristics of definite NP in conversation. The grammatical forms we study include personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun phrase, simple structure of noun, complex structure of noun and other six kinds. According to the standard of whether speaker use pragmatic intention in conversation, definiteness can be divided into pure definite and pragmatic definite. We summarize their syntactic and pragmatic features respectively.In the fourth chapter, the author mainly studies the characteristics of definite NP in conversation. Definiteness can also be divided into pure definite and pragmatic definite. The author summarizes their syntactic and pragmatic features respectively. When making comparison between specific and non-specific, we argue that it is necessary to study the specific independently.In the fifth chapter, we summarize the full idea of the text, and point out its deficiency and how to improve.