A Study On "Yao X" Conjunctions In Mandarin Chinese

Conjunctions like "yao(要)X" are widely used in modern Chinese, however, the study on them is not systematically. The paper manages to analyze and explain the structure with the aid of "yaoshi(要是)","yaobushi(要不是)","yaobu(要不)","yaoburan(要不然)",and "yaome(要么)",from the aspects of syntax, semantics, and grammaticalization. The dissertation contains five parts as follows:In the introduction part, the paper introduces the researching objectives, the purpose and significance of the study, the hypothesis and method of the study, the resources of language data and the literature review of past co-relational research.In the second part, based on the understanding of the characteristics of "yao(要)X" conjunctions, the paper describes and analyses the syntactic and discourse characters of "yao(要)X" conjunctions; and describes and analyses the format in which "yao(要)X" conjunctions are formed and the requirements on the elements are embedded. At last we summarize the internal regularity and reasons.In the third part, based on the meaning of "yaoX(要)"conjunctions, we get to know the four semantic features separately. Then we analyzes the difference from two groups of words and explain the reason from the aspect of logic.In the fourth part, the thesis studies the grammatical process of "yao(要)X" conjunctions, and describes the grammatical traces, and tries to find the trigger and the factor of "yao(要)X" structure's . grammaticalization.In the part of conclusion, the thesis sums of main idea the whole thesis, and points out the direction of further studies.