A Study Of The Deictic Time Adverbs Of "从来" Class In Modern Chinese

The deictic time adverbs of"从来"class include such words as"从来","从","素来","素","历来","向来"and"一向"in Chinese language. It's a class of deictic time adverbs. Based on the previous studies of manypredecessors, the present thesis applies three plane theories to make a study on the problems of the deictic timeadverbs of"从来"class, such as syntactic distribution, semantic meaning, pragmatic function, and the positionin time system of modern Chinese language.On syntactic level, the author puts emphasis on syntactic distribution, choices to the predicated headwordand choices simultaneous appearance of other adverbs. The regular position of the deictic time adverbs of"从来"class is behind the subject and before the predicate, and sometimes at the beginning of the sentence.Through making a contrastive analysis, the author clearly distinguishes part of speech of the deictic timeadverbs of"从来"class positioned at the beginning of the sentence and proposes four methods ofdiscriminating part of speech. The present thesis makes an analysis of the simultaneous appearance of thedeictic time adverbs of"从来"class, verbs as well as adjectives in the corpus and consequently shows thedemands of choice that the deictic time adverbs of"从来"class are toward verbs and adjectives. The presentthesis also make a study on the situation of the simultaneous appearance of other adverbs.It is summed up that this kind of adverbs have three semantic features, that is, [+state], [+past], and [+longterm]. Wherein, the semantic feature [+state] bears on the essential function of this class and is also where thebasic semantic is expressed by the syntax, while both [+past] feature and [+long term] feature determine thefunction and the manifestation of this class in time deixis. The present study finds that the"从来"class can notonly point to predicated headword, but also to complement, which negates the statement that when timeadverbs or frequency adverbs act as adverbial, the semantic meaning is undoubtedly directed to head. Throughanalyzing the different manifestations of the deictic time adverbs of"从来"class and the permanent timeadverb"一直"in terms of phase, tense and aspect, it is demonstrated that time adverbs of"从来"class are justtiming tense adverbs rather than permanent time adverbs.On pragmatic level, the author puts emphasis on analyzing types of sentences which are applicable to"从来"class and discovers that"从来"class can be used in declaratives, interrogatives and exclamatives. Theauthor also pays attention to the informative function and subjectivity of"从来"class and discourses upon thispoint.