"Yes..." Sentence Analysis

In modern Chinese Language, sentence pattern of'shi......de'can be used to express tones and this sentence pattern is our study target. This article focuses on inter-level, context cohesion and topic function of the'shi......de'from the perspective of discourse analysis.In the aspect of inter-level, we find that the number of adverbial-verb phrase and verb-object phrase is the largest. Among adverbial-verb phrase, the major patterns are Adv.+X', Aux.+X', preposition phrase+X'and pronoun+X'.And among verb-object phrase, the two major patterns are V.+N. and V.+attribute-head phrase.In the aspect of context cohesion, we find that more than 80% sentences have cohesive relations between linguistic context. Unmarked cohesion refers to semantic relationships, including continuation, instructions, coordination, transition and climax. When'shi......de'has cohesive relations with below text, unmarked cohesion accounts for 50%, which is more than that when with above text. Marked cohesion refers to fixed marker words, including'zhe/zheyang','danshi/keshi', 'qishi','jiushi','yinci/suoyi'and so on. When'shi......de'has cohesive relations with above text, marked cohesion accounts for 50%, which is more than that when with below text. We also find that the sentence is more often used to emphasize the tone when with preceding part of the text, and relax the tone when with what follows in the passage.In the aspect of topic function, the introduction function of sentential topic is much stronger than the continuatioa After'shi......de'introduces a sentential topic, the below text often doesn't continue it. At the same time, the introduction function of discourse topic is much stronger than the continuatioa And after'shi......de' introduces a discourse topic, there mostly tends to form explanary discourse topic clusters.