The Semantic And Pragmatic Study Of Sentence Final Particle Ba

The sentence final particle ba has always been a hotly debated point in linguistic research.Based on the former research,this thesis mainly focuses on semantic and pragmatic study of sentence final particle ba on the basis of evidentiality theory and speech act theory by using the methods of minimal pairs.Finally,the semantic meaning of ba and its pragmatic function have been studied.The thesis mainly contains three research questions.They are showed as the following:(1)What are the clause types that ba can attach to?(2)What is the main semantic meaning of sentence final particle ba-(3)What are the pragmatic functions of sentence final particle ba-By analyzing previous studies of particle ba and the data in CCL corpus,the findings of this thesis are as follows:(1)firstly,ba can be used at the end of declarative sentences,yes-no questions and imperative sentences.It cannot attach to the end of exclamations.There's a great deal of examples showing that ba is likely to appear with modal adverbs of possibility,auxiliaries with the meaning of should,and adverbs that have the meaning as certainly in declarative sentences and yes-no questions.But ba cannot appear in sentences that contain adverbs with the meaning of surprisingly,unexpectedly,obviously,undoubtedly and indeed,really,actually etc.What's more,when ba is attached to wh-questions and choice questions,it attaches on the omitted imperative structure indeed.So,ba cannot attach to wh-questions and choice questions.Lastly,ba can be used in the weak version of imperative sentences,but not in the strong version.(2)Based on the conclusion of last chapter,it is concluded that ba has speculative function in declarative sentences,confirmatory function in yes-no questions and negotiable function in imperative sentences.So,it's semantic function can be defined as uncertainty.What's more,seen as an evidential,ba sometimes ba preaches doubtful point of view in declarative sentences and imperative sentences,while preaches faith point of view in yes-no questions.It can also be concluded that the main semantic meaning of ba is uncertainty with its semantic meaning floating from one side of the spectrum of confirmation to the other side of the meaning of doubt.(3)On the foundation of previous studies,ba is found to be a speech act marker.When it is in different clause types,it will bring different illocutionary force to the sentence it attaches.Meanwhile,ba can either strengthen or weaken the illocutionary force of the sentence it attached.So,ba has the contextual adaptation function.