A Study On The Semantic Meaning Of The Final Modal Particles "Ma,Ba,Ne"

This paper is a research on the existing semantic study of the final modalparticles “Ma, Ba, Ne”, based on the Corpus of the Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU(CCL) and combined with statistical analysis and native speakers’ sense. The studycontains six chapters.Chapter1is an introductory one. In this chaper, we introduce the existingresearches on the semantic meaning of “Ma, Ba, Ne” and explain the study content,some related concepts, the source of corpus and the research method.Chapter2,3,4discuss the semantic meaning of “Ma, Ba, Ne”. According to thepresent, scholars agree on the semantic meaning of “Ma”, but there is lots ofdisagreement on “Ba” and “Ne”. Therefore, in chapter2, we firstly focus on testifyingthat “Ma” indicates the interrogative mood, and then we dissuss some unsolvedproblems like how to use the “elimination method” to prove our conclusion.In chapter3and4, our arguments include several steps. Firstly, based on the corpus,we discover that “Ba” and “Ne” indicate interrogative mood in the end of interrogativesentences, while express the tone of the speakers in the end of declarative sentences andimperative sentences. Secondly, we dissucss the exact meaning of “Ba” and “Ne” indeclarative sentences and imperative sentences, in which we firstly pick up one or somereasonable opinions and then use it or them to test the corpus. We finally draw aconclusion that in the end of declarative sentences and imperative sentences,“Ba”indicates the uncertain tone or alleviate the certain tone of the speakers, and sometimessuggest the concession of the speakers, while “Ne” appeals to the listener’ attention.In chapter5, we sum up all the conclusions above, and dissuss the semanticdifferences among the three. We discover that “Ba” and “Ne” in the end of non-interrogative sentences have the same semantic meaning with interrogative sentences,which cause them not to substitute for each other freely. In chapter6, we discuss the inspiration and innovations of our research, and pointout the deficiency which needs further exploration.