A Study Of The Speculative Mood Adverb "X Is Not" In Modern Chinese

The thesis investigates the four members of ‘Xbushi’: ‘pabushi’,‘biebushi’,‘gai bushi’ and ‘mobushi’.We discuss from various points such as syntactic features,meaning,pragmatics and lexicalization.In Chapter Two,we classify the location of‘Xbushi’ and discuss the factors influencing its location.The collocation between ‘Xbushi’ and other words is also discussed in groups.Chapter Three is about the meanings of each member.Their same point is to express speculation while their semantic color differs from contexts.In Chapter Four,the pragmatic functions are fully talked about.It has three expressing functions: expressing subjective attitude,highlighting important points,and relaxing manner of speaking.The textual functions are: cohesive function,such as causal relationship or progressive relationship,and presupposition trigger conditions.We also investigate the subjectivity of ‘Xbushi’from prospective,emotion and epistemic modality.Chapter Five describes the process of lexicalization and tries to explain the mechanism of the changes.