先秦情態動詞研究 = A Study of Modal Verbs in Pre-Qin Chinese
Journal
國立臺灣大學中國文學研究所博士論文
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Abstract
This dissertation is a study of modal verbs in Pre-Qin Chinese. In this study, modal verbs are defined as the verbs which express modality, including not only what were traditionally classified as “can-wish” verbs (nengyuan dongci 能願動詞) or auxiliary verbs, such as kě可, néng能, yù欲, yuàn願, but also lexical modal verbs, such as zhī知, xìn信, mìng命, jìn禁. This study aims at investigating the meaning, usage, and the semantic evolution of modal verbs, describing the system of modal verbs in Pre-Qin Chinese, and comparing them with the cross-linguistic research of modal verbs to show their similarities and distinctions.
Chapter 1 interprets the term “modal verbs” in this study, and then reviews the definition and research outline of modality by Chinese and foreign scholars. Starting from their achievements in modality, this chapter seeks out the way to define the semantic category of “modality” adapted to Pre--Qin Chinese. Finally, this chapter explains the range of literature surveyed in this thesis and approach to the study.
Chapter 2 first reviews the previous research documents concerning Chinese modal verbs and on which basis puts a new definition on modal verbs in Pre-Qin Chinese according to their meanings and grammatical function. Next, this chapter distinguishes the types of modality into epistemic, deontic, dynamic and circumstantial, and lists all the modal verbs expressing these four modality types.
According to the feature that modality expresses the speaker’s opinion or attitude on the proposition or event, modal verbs singled out above are further classified into typical modal verbs and atypical modal verbs, the former subsumes the modal verbs which express the speaker’s opinion or attitude on the proposition or event, such as kě可, zú足, néng能,dé得, dāng當, and the later subsumes those which do not express the speaker’s opinion or attitude on the proposition or event. The atypical modal verbs are further classified into two categories, namely atypical modal verbs I and atypical modal verbs II, the former subsumes the modal verbs which express the subject’s ability or volition, such as kěn肯, gǎn敢, yù欲 and yuàn願, and the later subsumes all the modal verbs excluding the two types mentioned above, such as zhī知, xìn信, kǒng恐, mìng命 and shǐ使.
From chapter 3 to chapter 5, three types of modal verbs are analyzed respectively and the analysis are mainly focused on the forming and semantic evolution of modal verbs, and the modality types expressed by them. If it is necessary, the syntactic analysis of the modal verbs is also included.
Chapter 6 classifies the modal verbs in four categories and two large groups, analyzes the different ways of forming and evolution of modal verbs, draws the modality’s semantic map to present the path of semantic evolution of modal verbs and compare them with the cross-linguistic research of modal verbs to show their similarities and distinctions, and finally analyzes the requirements determining the diverse evolution paths of modal verbs according to the verb types of these modal verbs.
The last chapter summarizes the achievements and limitations of this dissertation and points out the prospect of this study in the future.
Subjects
Pre-Qin Chinese
modality
modal verbs
semantic evolution
modality's semantic map
Type
thesis
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