Diachronic Study On Chinese Monosyllable Conjectural Modality Adverb

There is no specific definition of the Conjectural Modality Adverb.This paper argues that the Conjectural Modality Adverb means that the speaker is uncertain about the truth of the proposition.It is the speaker's judgment of whether an event is true or not.Monosyllable Conjectural Modality Adverb refers to the kind of adverbs that consist of only one syllable.This thesis is composed of four parts:Chapter One is the introduction,which includes Literature Review,organization of the thesis,sources of corpus,research method and my contribution to the study on Conjectural Modality Adverb.Chapter Two explores the historical development of Monosyllable Conjectural Modality Adverb.According to the speaker's degree of certainty,the Conjectural Modality Adverbs can be classified into two groups:determinate conjecture and indeterminate conjecture.Its history is divided into three periods,namely Ancient Chinese,Middle Chinese,and Modern Chinese.We explore the usage of Chinese Monosyllable Conjectural Modality Adverb in these three periods in detail.Moreover,we provide possible reasons for the change.Chapter Three examines the diachronic development of two groups of words," Kong/lv/Pa"" Duan/Pan/Jue"so that the study on Chinese semantic development rule can be enriched.Chapter Four is the conclusion,in which the general development of Monosyllable Conjectural Modality Adverb is described.And it also concludes the similarities and differences between the two groups of words that are studied in the third chapter.In this thesis,two points have been concluded.First,the frequency variation of indeterminate conjecture adverbs in different periods is obvious.In ancient Chinese,"Qi"had the highest frequency of use.In middle Chinese,the usage frequency of"Qi"decreased,and the "Gai" was the most frequently used adverb.During the tang and song dynasties in modern Chinese,the highest frequency was "Kong",while during the yuan Ming and qing dynasties,"Pa" became the main adverb.The number of determinate conjecture adverbs varies greatly from time to time,but the most frequently used one is"Bi".Second,"Kong/lv/Pa",as the conjectural modality adverbs,evolve according to the people's psychological activity,experiencing the "worry>worry---estimate,conjecture>conjecture,"stage.The adverbs of "Duan/Pan/Jue"are all originated from the actions that separate things,but they have different path for semantic evolution.The adverb "Duan"comes from the verb means judgment,"Pan" was affected by the "Duan" and then became an adverb,"Jue" is further falsified by adverb of degree.