Abstract
Generating Chinese sentences require three kinds of words, including object words (lexical item), attribute words and relational words. Modal words (modal auxiliaries) are nature words which express a speaker’s attitude. They help to generate modal sentences and express modal meanings. In terms of modal meanings, modal words can be divided into three categories, expressing necessity, expectation, and disjunction respectively. Different types of modal words can be discovered by data mining and their semantic strength can be calculated. In the use of modal words the relationship between speaker’s identity and power should be considered.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ma, Q.Z.: Language of can wish verbs (1) (1988). (马庆株.能愿动词的连用.语言研究.1988(1)). (in Chinese)
Lizhen, P.: A Study of Modern Chinese Modal. Chinese Social Science Publishing House, Beijing (2007). (彭利贞.现代汉语情态研究.北京:中国社会科学出版社, 2007). (in Chinese)
Shen, J.: How to Evaluate the Semantic Strength of Words. Chinese language 1989(1). (沈家煊.判断语词的语义强度[J].中国语文.1989(1)). (in Chinese)
Shen, J.: The language of the “subjectivity” and “subjective”. foreign language teaching and research of 2001(4). (沈家煊.语言的“主观性”和“主观化”.外语教学与研究. 2001(4)). (in Chinese)
Jialing, X.: The Modal Verb in Chinese. Tsinghua University, Hsinchu (2002). (谢佳玲.汉语的情态动词,台湾新竹:清华大学, 2002). (in Chinese)
Yu, S.: Dictionary of Modern Chinese Grammar Information. Tsinghua University Press, Beijing (1998). (俞士汶.现代汉语语法信息词典.北京:清华大学出版社,1998). (in Chinese)
Zhou, J.: Semantics, Logic and Philosophy of language. Academic Press, Beijing (2006). (周建设. 语义、逻辑与语言哲学.北京:学苑出版社, 2006). (in Chinese)
Jianshe, Z. (ed.): A Course in Modern Chinese. People’s Education Press, Beijing (2014). (周建设主编.现代汉语教程.北京:人民教育出版社, 2014). (in Chinese)
Lyons, J.: Semantics. CUP, Cambridge (1977)
Palmer, F.: Mood and Modality, 2nd edn. CUP, Cambridge (2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Zhou, J., Narentuya, Shi, J. (2015). A Semantic Study of Modal Words in Mandarin Chinese. In: Lu, Q., Gao, H. (eds) Chinese Lexical Semantics. CLSW 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9332. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27194-1_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27194-1_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27193-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27194-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)