A Possible World Semantic Analysis Of The Chinese Epistemic Necessity Modals

Epistemic modals are those pertaining to the speaker’ s knowledge.The study of epistemic modality has always been a hot topic,and since Kratzer’ s（1981,1991）unified analysis of modality in possible world semantics,the researches on epistemic modals from the formal semantic perspective have become fruitful.In Chinese,since there is still no consensus on some issues concerning epistemic modals like ’yiding’ , ’kending’ , ’hui’ ,etc.,we aim to investigate these modals by using the classic Kratzerian approach.First,we explore the semantics of the adverb ’yiding’ and compares the semantics of the synonyms of ’yiding’ and ’kending’ .In the previous studies, ’yiding’ is taken as epistemic modality,deontic modality and dynamic modality（Peng（2007）;Chen（2011）;Zhang&Xiao（2015）;Pan（2017））.In this thesis,we argue that ’yiding’ has three uses:– ’yiding₁’ as an epistemic modal, ’yiding₂’ as a truth confirmer and ’yiding₃’ as a modal intensifier.In modern mandarin Chinese, ’yiding’ and ’kending’ are synonyms and they can substitute each other in some occasions.We compare the semantics of ’yiding’ and ’kending’ on the basis of the clarification of the semantics of ’yiding’ and propose that they both just express epistemic modality when interpreted as modal expressions,and in other cases,they should be taken as intensification adverbs:the two adverbs both can be interpreted as a truth-confirmer（namely the reading of ’yiding₂’ ）;while only ’yiding’ has the reading of intensifier of modals（namely the reading of ’yiding₃）.Second,the modal force of ’hui’ and the co-occurrence of epistemic modality are discussed.It hasn’ t been reached an agreement on the modal force of ’hui’ ,and some scholar even holds the view that the modal force of“hui”is uncertain and varied（Wu（2018））.On this matter,she takes the co-occurrence of epistemic modals as a proof for the uncertainty of hui’ s modal force: ’hui’ and ’yao’ can co-occur with other epistemic modals of various modal forces,forming the collocation of“yiding hui/yao”,“yinggai hui/yao”and“keneng hui/yao”.While according to the standard theory of modality,modals are not ambiguous and one modal word has one modal force.Though a modal can have different readings due to its varying modal bases and ordering sources,the modal force doesn’ t vary with their different readings.In this thesis,we argue that ’hui’ is a strong necessity modal,and for the case of the co-occurrence of epistemic modality,referring to the cross-linguistic data and findings,we adopt the method of choice function as an explanation to the phenomenon（Reinhart（1997）;Winter（1997）;Matthewson（1999）;Matthewson et.al（2007）;Giannakidou&Mari（2017））.In this framework,the adverb like ’yiding’ , ’yinggai’ and ’keneng’ function choice functions and provide support set of variable size:the stronger the adverb,the larger the support set,the stronger the statement;the weaker the adverb,the smaller the support set,the weaker the statement.