Modal Verbs In Yuyao Wu

This thesis mainly discusses the polysemous modal verbs and corresponding negative forms of Yuyao Wu.It describes the three polysemous modal verbs "hao(好)","yao(要)" "hui(会)",analyzes the required syntactic and semantic conditions,and explains their choice of negative forms.Yuyao is located at the junction of Shaoxing and Ningbo.Although Yuyao dialect is classified under the Linshao subdivision,it is also profoundly influenced by Ningbo dialect which belongs to the Yongjiang subdivision.There are many ways to express modality in Yuyao dialect.There are three polysemous modal verbs in Yuyao dialect:"hao(好)","yao(要)" and "hui(会)",which represent far more meanings than the same words in Putonghua.In Yuyao dialect,there are six semantic items of "hao(好)",seven semantic items of "yao(要)" and three semantic items of "hui(会)".This paper uses syntactic and semantic descriptions to reveal the different syntactic conditions required by the different meanings of these three polysemous modal verbs.It can be found that factors such as the sentence particle,the subject of the proposition,the aspect marker,and the predicate component followed by the modal verb can affect the choice of the semantic items of the modal verb.In terms of the negative forms of these polysemous verbs,the syntactic environment in which different negative forms are located is also different.There is no one-to-one correspondence between the negative form and the affirmative form of the modal verbs in Yuyao dialect.As for the negation types,the negation of the modal verbs in Yuyao dialect is mainly divided into internal negation and external negation.Moreover,the negative operator can even negate the adverb before the modal verb in addition to the modal verb or the whole proposition.