A Contrastive Study Of Modal Adverbs "bu Mian", "nan Mian" And "wei Mian" In Modern Chinese

This thesis makes a study on modal adverbs Bumian, Nanmian and Weimian.The similarities and differences among the three words will be discussed from the aspects of syntax, semantic and pragmatics in this thesis.In regard to syntax, the position of Bumian, Nanmian and Weimian is very flexible in the sentence, but mainly distributed in a clause. All of them can modify predicate ingredients such as psychological verbs,adjectives and subject-predicate phrases. They also have their own special structures. In addition, all of them can be co-occurring with negative adverbs, degree adverbs and modal particles.From the aspect of semantic, Bumian, Nanmian and Weimian all indicate that the proposition is true. Therefore, they all have the semantic feature of [+affirmation]. Bumian lays stress on objectivity, while Nanmian attaches importance to subjective causality,and Weimian emphasizes subjective appraisal.The subjectivity of them is increasing by degrees,while the truth of proposition is decreasing.As to pragmatics, Bumian, Nanmian and Weimian are used more often in the written word,and mainly used in declarative sentences. The same function of logic expression is to illustrate the causal relationship between the incidents and the results.The difference is that Bumian and Nanmian can strengthen the logic of words,while Weimian just increases the tone of evaluation. As for their interpersonal functions, they are all used as a euphemistic way to make people accept the speaker’s words easily. Bumian and Nanmian can even make people take the actions which are anticipated by the speaker.