Syntactic And Discourse:Rules Of Entity First-mention And Cause Analysis Of Indefinite Construction In Chinese FIS Discourse

The relationship between syntax and discourse is an important content of grammar and pragmatics. Based on the interaction of syntax and discourse, this thesis concerns about "the study of syntax from discourse perspective" and takes "entity first-mention" in Chinese narrative discourse as the major research object. What attracts the author is how an entity is first mentioned in a narrative discourse (namely entity first-mention), which means what kind of syntax the entity employs. This thesis focuses on the analysis and explanation of "entity first-mention."First, the thesis summarizes the rules of entity first-mention in Chinese narrative discourse in the perspectives of expression form, syntax position and sentence pattern, and analyzes the causes. Then the author explores the indefinite subject sentence and indefinite Ba把sentence (a sentence pattern using the character Ba in Chinese), and discusses the conditions and functions of them from the perspective of "entity first-mention."The aim of this thesis is to reveal the rules of entity first-mention in expression forms, syntax position and sentence pattern, discuss the promotion and restriction effects of entity first mention on syntax and analyze the special phenomenon of Chinese grammar from the perspective of "entity first-mention." In this way, we can reach a deeper understanding of the interaction between syntax and discourse as well as the interaction between grammar and pragmatics.This thesis can be divided into eight chapters, which are to be further explained as following:Chapter one is the introduction, which represents the research objects, theoretical methods and relevant literature review of this thesis.Chapter two explains what are narrative discourse and entity first-mention, etc, and discusses their definitions, classifications and natures in details.Chapter three summarizes the rules of entity first-mention in expression forms and fully explains the rules from the perspectives of identifiability, topic and information. Besides, the thesis also makes a comparison and explanation of the rules of entity first-mention in expression forms in different types of narrative discourses. Finally, it makes a classification of the reference and information mismatch of entity first-mention form, and analyzes its discourse function and pragmatic effects.Chapter four discusses the syntax position of entity first-mention from the perspective of diversification and summarizes its tendency rules. By relating to the influential factors of the information structure, thematic progression model and discourse cohesive device, this chapter makes an analysis and explanation of tendency rules. Meanwhile, it also makes a comparison and explanation of the rules of entity first-mention in syntax of different narrative discourses.Chapter five explores the rules of entity first-mention in syntax. This chapter discusses the patterns of entity first-mention sentences from the perspective of diversification, sums up the distribution rules of entity first-mention sentence from the perspective of tendency and explains the tendency rules by relating to the preference of entity first-mention in syntax position as well as the structure model of narrative discourse. At the same time, the thesis also makes a comparison and explanation of the rules of entity first-mention in sentence pattern of different narrative discourses.Chapter six explores indefinite subject sentence in Chinese from the perspective of "entity first-mention." It analyzes the distribution and entity first-mention function of indefinite subject sentence in narrative discourse in details, and probes into their conditions by relating to the elements of form, semantics and context. After that, the author makes a comparative analysis of the distribution of indefinite subject sentence in different narrative discourses, and summarizes the style preference and particular discourse functions of indefinite subject sentences. Finally, it discusses the alternative degree of indefinite subject sentence and "You有" sentence ("You" means "have" in Chinese, and "You" sentence is a sentence structure containing the character "You").Chapter seven analyzes indefinite Ba sentence from the perspective of "entity first-mention." First, it classifies indefinite Ba sentence into two kinds, one evolves from "Ba Yi把一" in ancient Chinese while the other evolves from "Ba Ge把个" in ancient Chinese. Then it interprets the information, topic and pragmatic function of indefinite Ba sentence in narrative discourse and further explains their style preference.Chapter eight is the conclusion. It sums up the major points, conclusions and significance of the thesis, figures out its limitations and proposes some topics for follow-up researches.