A Contrastive Study Of The Chinese And Japanese Mood Systems:A Systemic Functional Perspective

In mood studies,the current existing problems,such as obscurity in the definition of mood,weak function orientation,and incomprehensiveness concerning research issues,have resulted in the lack of well-grounded contrastive studies of mood.Therefore,this PhD dissertation attempts to observe Chinese and Japanese mood systems from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics(SFL),taking function as its basis to clarify the concept of mood.In this aspect,this dissertation aims to reach the following three objectives:to discover the similarities and differences in Chinese and Japanese mood types(MTs)and their realizations;to discover the similarities and differences in Chinese and Japanese mood forces(MFs)and their realizations;and to explore the similarities and differences of Chinese and Japanese mood systems.The mood system in this research includes the mood type system and the mood force system,which focuses on social interpersonal communication,personal will and emotion realized in language:social interpersonal communication is realized by MT system;personal will and emotion by MF system.Taking SFL as the research perspective,the dissertation describes,exemplifies and contrasts Chinese and Japanese congruent MTs,metaphorical MTs,and MFs in terms of delicacy,linguistic realizations(grammatical and lexical methods)and context features(field,tenor,mode),which presents the following major findings:Chinese and Japanese congruent MTs show similarities in functional types,both containing declarative,interrogative,and imperative moods;within the declarative mood,they both include five types of exclamative mood,namely exclamation at things,at the quality of things,at the quantity of things,at the quality of situations,and at the quantity of situations.Chinese and Japanese interrogative mood both include the types seeking for polarity and for new contents;yet in Japanese the choice for polarity seeking is only realized in ranking clauses.Chinese and Japanese imperative mood both contain command,request,ruling,statement of hope,suggestion,offer,and statement of wish.In terms of linguistic realizations,Chinese and Japanese congruent MTs show similarities in the utilization of word order adjustment,formulaic expressions,question words,and mood particles;they also demonstrate differences in basic word orders,the utilization of repetition,structural orders,marking features and gender features of mood particles,and verbal morphological features.Chinese and Japanese metaphorical MTs show similarities in delicacy,both containing interrogative metaphor for declarative mood,antonymic metaphor for declarative mood,declarative metaphor for interrogative mood,imperative metaphor for interrogative mood,declarative metaphor for imperative mood,and interrogative metaphor for imperative mood.In terms of linguistic realizations,Chinese and Japanese metaphorical MTs show similarities in the utilization of formulaic expressions,irregularity in the use of negative forms,frequent use of mood particles,and form-meaning correspondence;they also demonstrate differences in clause structures,applicability of formulaic expressions,the use of modal adverbs,verbal morphological features,and the coexistence of grammatical and lexical features.In terms of contextual features,Chinese and Japanese metaphorical MTs show similarities in turn-taking potentials,oral expression features,relations between metaphorical meaning and contextual dependence,relations between linguistic realizations and contextual dependence,and the interaction between power relation patterns and grammatical features;they also demonstrate differences in the diversity of power relation patterns,relations between power relation patterns and linguistic realizations,degree of contextual dependence,style preference,relations between metaphorical meaning and mode,and multifunction of MTs.Chinese and Japanese MFs show similarities in delicacy:Chinese and Japanese internal MFs both contain confirmation,expectation,capability,necessity,probability,permission,inclination,and obligation;external MFs in the two languages both include degree(high,middle,low)and speed(fast,normal,slow).In terms of linguistic realizations,Chinese and Japanese MFs show similarities in the utilization of repetition,metaphorical MTs,incomplete clauses,projection,abusive expressions,and fillers.Furthermore,this study briefly analyzed the phonetic features of external MFs since they concern the physical features of language use.The results show that Chinese and Japanese external MFs have similarities in the correspondence between volumes and emotional expressions,and in the voice change of vowels;Japanese external MFs also utilize retroflection,sokuon(sudden stop)and "voiced" vowels for realization,with the latter two also realized in graphology.The similarities and differences of Chinese and Japanese mood systems in typological view show that Chinese and Japanese languages neither rely on word orders for the realization of modd;they both show similar question-and-answer patterns.However,they demonstrate differences in the typicality of prepositional languages,lexical features versus morphological features,correspondence between grammatical function and form,and the different preferences for structural sequence or for rules.Viewed from the perspective of thinking and mindsets,Chinese and Japanese mood systems reflect the similarities of Chinese and Japanese nations in interpersonal communication,and the differences in mindsets,such as the different preferences for fact or for emotion,for integrating or for grouping,and for intuition or for convention.Chinese and Japanese mood systems,if viewed from sociocultural perspective,demonstrate the common focus on interaction in social communication and the diversified social structures of Chinese and Japanese societies which show a contrast between familial and group structures.The features of Chinese and Japanese social patterns lead to the similarities and differences in thinking in terms of interpersonal interaction,which thus influences the similarities and differences found in language types and mood systems.In conclusion,this dissertation describes and exemplifies Chinese and Japanese mood systems from SFL perspective,conveying a comprehensive and systematic contrastive analysis of language realizations and contextual features of mood,specifically in the following:discovering the similarities and differences of language expressions of Chinese and Japanese mood systems through contrasting linguistic realizations;highlighting the contextual interactivity of mood expressions with the description of context features;and lastly,analyzing the similarities and differences from the dimensions of language,thinking,and social culture.The dissertation,on the one hand,provides a new view in terms of the research of mood for SFL,and,on the other,addresses the problems existing in the previous mood studies.