Functional Study Of The Combination Of "time Adverb + Say

Regarding the“Time Adverb+Shuo(说)”construction in modern Chinese language as the research subject,this paper focuses on describing the usages of three constructions of“Gang/Cai+Shuo(刚/才+说)”“Benlai+Shuo(本来+说)”and“Hai+Shuo(还+说)”.All these constructions are applied in texts,which quote some actions or propositions to convey the subjective intents and cognition of the speaker.On the basis of case study,this paper attempts to reveal the structural and expressive features of the construction,rationally explaining the discourse functions of“Time Adverb+Shuo(说)”construction.This paper consists of six chapters.The first chapter is the introduction,which explains the origin of the topic,identifies the research object,reviews the current status of related research,sorts out the current research results,and presents the research contents,research methods and corpus of this paper.It will continue to analyze the case study from chapter two to four.In chapter two,the syntactic and semantic features of the construction“Gang/Cai + Shuo(刚/才+说)” are analyzed.Based on proving that “Gang/Cai +Shuo(刚/才+说)” has changed from a verbal phrase into an adverbial construction,this part also discusses the functional characteristics of “Gang/Cai + Shuo(刚/才+说)”from three aspects of the syntactic collocation,the usage context and the position and attitude of the speaker.In chapter three,the categories and the syntactic and semantic characteristics of the construction“Benlai+Shuo(本来+说)”are explored.Firstly,it analyzes the expression functions of the verbal phrase“Benlai+Shuo(本来+说)”,which is usually followed by indirect speech and forms adversative relations with the next clauses.Secondly,it discusses the construction“Benlai+Shuo(本来+说)”which expresses speech acts.This verbal phrase can be divided into two categories according to the differences of speech act expressed and subjective emotion conveyed,which possesses respective functional characteristics.Finally,the expressive function and syntactic performance of the construction“Benlai+Shuo(本来+说)”are further discussed.In chapter four,the categories and the syntactic and semantic characteristics of the construction “Hai+Shuo(还+说)” are analyzed.According to the meaning of“Hai(还)”,the verbal phrase “Hai+Shuo(还+说)” is divided into seven categories,then the verbal phrase which is relative with the construction “Hai+Shuo(还+说)” is found out.Next,in accordance with the different quoted contents,the construction“Hai+Shuo(还+说)” can also be divided into three categories to describe.The first type quotes the speaker’s expectations,the second type quotes the speaker’s thoughts,and the third type quotes the speaker’s plans and intentions.Among them,the construction “Hai+Shuo(还+说)” which quotes the speaker’s expectation possesses counter-expectation function,while the construction “Hai+Shuo(还+说)” which quotes the speaker’s previous thoughts owns counter-factive function.In chapter five,the functional evolution mechanism of the construction “Time Adverb +Shuo(说)” is discussed based on case studies.Firstly,it illustrates the expression of functional evolution: de-categorization of the verb “shuo(说)”、backgrounding of the phrase “Time Adverb +Shuo(说)” and the change of collocation ranges of the structure “Time Adverb +Shuo(说)”.Secondly,it points out that the semantic evolution and frequency of the verb “shuo(说)” are the basic conditions for the functional evolution.Finally,the paper illustrates that the mechanism of functional evolution is subjectivation.After describing the process of subjectivation in the three cases,the motives for subjectivation are explored: the first-person subject and the irrealis of the quoted content.Chapter six is a summary.It illustrates the common rules of the construction“Time Adverb +Shuo(说)” and the individual characteristics of each case,and then concludes the whole paper,explains the significances and shortcomings of the study.