An Initial Study On Modality Category Of Modern Chinese

MODALITY is a term originally from philosophy and logic.Western linguistics,using the research ideas on modality logic for reference,launched the study of modality of natural language.In Chinese,the study of modality started with observing auxiliary verbs.There have been a lot of scholars,who work from their respective standpoints,and a lot of hypotheses,which contradict each other, since Mashi Wentong(the Chinese Grammar by Ma Jianzhong).The crux of the problem lies in unclear concepts,indefinite terms,vague definitions and indistinct systems—modality is confused with intonation and voice,and modality words blurred with verbs and adverbs,which leads to the vagueness of the whole Chinese grammar system.The abstract meaning structure of Chinese sentence can be analyzed as {[《【(proposition)tense-aspect】modality》intonation]voice},which can be simplified as {【objective conveying system】notional system}({【OCS】NS}). Notional system(NS)consists of three subsystems:modality,intonation and voice. This thesis has carefully differentiated and analyzed the three concepts and reached the notional processing course of Chinese sentence as follows:proposition + tense-aspect→(OCS)OCS + modality→stem(Modality makes the OCS accord with notional purpose)stem + intonation→sentence(Intonation makes the stem up to usefulness)sentence + voice→utterance(voice makes the sentence accord with language environment) The theoretical value of separating NS from OCS lies in that it helps to observe more accurately the position of modality meaning.According to this thesis, MODALITY is the notional ideas from uttering person who has processed the OCS and whose purpose is modifying the whole OCS.That is to say,modality meaning comes from uttering person,stands out of the proposition and points to the whole OCS.Traditional six sentence elements,such as predicate and adverbial,can only be used to analyze OCS;modality,like intonation and voice,standing in the NS but not in the OCS,cannot be analyzed as predicate or adverbial.This theory frame can draw a part of auxiliary verbs and a part of adverbs into modality words and a part of parenthesis into modality phrases.In this way,the marking system of modality category can be set up integratedly and the syntactic character of it can be described consistently.