"children Heroes" Rhetorical Study

Defined as any question asked for a purpose other than to obtain the information the question asks, a figure of speech in the form of a question, it has a specific semantic meaning and it is used to perform specific pragmatic functions. With rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan as the research object, this thesis is to conduct a detailed analysis at three levels of rhetorical questions. This thesis is divided into six parts.Introduction starts with a brief account of Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan, including its author, background information, main content, material values, and present research situation about this book. The objectives, significance and methodology of this research are also explained.SectionⅠdeals with the definition of rhetorical question, which summarizes the academic achievements on rhetorical questions, such as definition, feature and classification.SectionⅡanalyses rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan from the perspective of syntactic structure. According to some theories, rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan are classified into four types, namely, yes-or-no questions, positive-negative questions, alternative questions and specific questions. Efforts are made in differentiating the specific syntactic features of each category. Besides, comparison between rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan and modern chinese is also made. What is more, expressions of rhetorical tone and particles used in rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan are briefly explored.SectionⅢinvestigates rhetorical questions from the semantic aspects, Priority is given to two types of semantic expression that adopted in rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan.SectionⅣanalyses from the pragmatic point of view in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan. This thesis concludes that rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan are fulfilling 7 pragmatic functions, namely, dissatisfying and blaming, defending and contradicting, denouncing and satirizing, urging and commanding, persuading and dissuading, puzzling and confusing, rejecting and declining.The Conclusion part summarizes the major findings in this thesis. After the thorough investigation into rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan, the thesis concludes that rhetorical questions in Ernv Yingxiong Zhuan play a transitional role in the history of rhetorical questions in the history of Chinese language.