The Study Of Mood Particles In Hand-down-literature Of Warring States Period

This paper investigates the syntax and semantics of mood particles in hand-down-literature of Warring States period, namely, Zuozhuan, Guoyu, Lunyu, Mozi, Yanzi, Menzi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Hanfeizi, Lvshichunqiu and Zhanguoce. Concretely, this paper, on the one hand, enumerates the statistical description syntactic features of each mood particle, including the syntactic position, syntagmatic potential, distributing of sentence types, oc-occurrence restrictions, appearance adjacently and so on; on the other hand, it attempts to analyse the semantic and pragmatic function of every mood particle in the frame of modality, which is the modification of the'believe or doubt'frame put forward systematically by Majianzhong(1998).The generalization of function of each mood particle is terse and uniform, sometimes the explanation spans the limit of sentence type and syntactic position.The chapters of this paper are as follows:Chapter 1 summarizes the study on mood particles in Chinese, dividing it into three periods, namely, the period before 1898, the period from 1898 to 1949, the period from 1949 to now. In this section, the paper stresses the process of the establishment, as well as advantages and disadvantages of the main analytic mode which is based on the differentiation of sentence types. And then it comments on the study of the three periods,and argues that we should distinguish between sentence type mood and the function of mood particles,and analyse the function from different dimensions and categories.Chapter 2 is the introduction of this paper. Firstly, it defines some basic concepts,such as mood particles, mood and sentence type. Secondly, it explains some basic problems shortly,such as the intonation of sentences, the identification of sentence types and the generalization of the function of mood particles. Next, it puts forward the goal, means and significance in the study of mood particles in hand-down-literature of Warring States period. Finally, it introduces the edition of every hand-down-literature of Warring States period,besides the basic symbol in writing this paper. Chapter 3, the basic section of this paper, describes statistically the syntax feature of each mood particles. While the mood particle is at the final positon of the sentence, the character of predication, affixed by the mood particle, is described in detail, as well as the character and sentence type of the clause in which the mood particle appears. And while the mood particle is at the middle positon of the sentence, the character of constituents (such as subject, modifier and conjunction) affixed by the mood particle is accounted and described in detail. The transposal of subject and predication is also accounted , no matter which positon the mood particle is at.Chapter 4 is the core section of this paper.Accordding to the conclusion of chapter 3, it deep analyses the semantic and pragmatic function of every mood particle taking'modality'as the foundation of the study, which is the modification of the'believe or doubt'frame put forward systematically by Majianzhong(1998). Specially, it argues that ye也, yi矣and yiå·²can also be considered as aspect markers. In other words, marking the aspect is the secondary function of the three mood particles. In addition,'theme'and'rheme', in analyzing mood particles at the middle positon of sentences, are adopted to determine the function of marking the message.Moreover, the adjacent appearance of two or three mood particles is described and explained renewedly.Chapter 5 summarizes the conclusions of the former two chapters. In the 11 hand-down-literature of Warring States period, There are 11 mood particles and present 32291 times in all, namely, ye也(21753 times), yi矣(5384 times), yiå·²(167 times), er耳(152 times), xiå…®(37 times), hu乎2(404 times), hu乎1(2687 times), yu與(255 times), ye耶(345 times), fu夫(105 times), zai哉(989 times) and yan焉(13times).Thereinto yi矣, yiå·², er耳, hu乎1, yu與, ye耶, fu夫and zai哉can only appear at the final position of the sentence, yan焉can only appear at the middle position of the sentence, while ye也, ye耶, xiå…®and hu乎2 can appear at both the two kinds position of the sentence.The conclusions of this paper are as follows:First, there are a striking dissimilarity between the syntagmatic potential of the mood particles when they appear at the final position of the sentence.The proportion of the nominal predication ye也, yiå·², yu與, and ye耶in combination with , are 39.54%,27.55%,30.98% and 25.66% respectively, which are obviously higher than that of the nominal predication yi矣, xiå…®and hu乎2 in combination with,which are 1.77%, 0 and 5.19%respectively. Noteworthily, the proportion of the adjective predication xiå…®and hu乎2 in combination with are obviously higher than that of others, 57.58% and 77.92% respectively.Second,all the mood particles can appear in two,three or four sentence types except xiå…®and hu乎2.Thereinto, more than 93% instances of ye也, yi矣, yiå·², er耳, xiå…®, hu乎2 are declarative sentences, and more than 68% instances of hu乎1, yu與, ye耶and zai哉are question sentences. As far as fu夫, 81.9% instances of it are declarative sentences, while 28.1% instances question sentences.Third, the basic semantic and pragmatic function of every mood particle is marking the stop or pause.From the point of discourse, yan焉, ye也and ye耶can be used as the marker of theme, but xiå…®and hu乎2 are still only used as the marker of pause.When mood particles appear at the final position of the sentence, the functions of them fall into two classes,one is expressing the certain or doubt of the speaker, the other is adjusting the speed or strength of the speech, all of them belong to the category of modality. Thereinto, ye也, yi矣, yiå·², er耳and fu夫are used to express the believe of the speaker, hu乎₁, yu與 and ye耶are used to express the doubt of the speaker, zai哉is used to reinforce the strength of the speech, while xiå…®and hu乎₂ are used to slow the speed of the speech. Noteworthily, ye也, yi矣and yiå·²also can be used as the aspect marker: ye也is the maker of imperfective, while yi矣and yiå·²is the maker of perfective(yiå·²is only used in sentence of deduction).The expressing-believe mood particles still have the function of expressing the believe when uesed in polar questions, but stretch the function of expressing the certain of the speaker when used in imperative sentences, and only have the function of slowing the speed of the speech when used in content questions and rhetorical questions. The basic and principal function of hu乎₁/yu與/ye耶is expressing the doubt of the speaker, and when used in content questions, declarative sentences with assumptive mood and imperative sentences, they stretch the function of expressingthe uncertain of the speaker. Finally, the adjacent appearance of two or three mood particles is decided by the functions of mood particles. If the functions of mood particles are almost the same,these mood particles can not appear adjacently, such as hu乎1, yu與 and ye耶, hu乎₂ and xiå…®.If the functions of mood particles are oppose absolutely or at a certain extent, these mood particles can not appear adjacently, such as ye也and yi矣, fu夫and hu乎₁/ye耶/yu與.The order of the adjacent appearance of two or three mood particles is as follows: er耳>ye也/yiå·²/yi矣>hu乎₁/yu與/ye耶/fu夫>zai哉>hu乎₂. And there is a basic semantic principle governing the the order of the adjacent appearance: the mood particle which expresses more meanings of proposition is ahead of the mood particle which expresses more subjectibity; in other words, the former is nearer the core of proposition, while the latter is further from the core of proposition. This semantic principle can be illustrated by the follow diagram:...