英语论文网

Introduction

Research Background
The earliest study about the non-interrogative usage of the interrogative pronounshenme dates back to Li Jinxi. He concludes two non-interrogative usages of the word:one is that in affirmative mood sentence, shenme is an adjective expressing indefinitedenotation; the other is that in question sentences including “shi-bu-shi” ‘yes or not’,shenme does not function as an interrogative word. His work opens the gate ofstudying the non-interrogative usage of shenme.(qtd. in H. L. Zhang 27).Later, many scholars focus on the classification of the non-interrogative usages.Zhu Dexi points out that there are two kinds of usage: one is to express universaldistribution and the other is to refer something or someone that people don’t know orare unwilling to speak it out (89). Shao and Zhao list nine non-interrogative usages(26-40).Recently, many linguists analyze shenme with modern formal linguistic methods(C. T. Huang; Y. H. Li; J.W. Lin; L.S. Cheng; Pan and Jiang; Y. Q. Wu etc.). Theymainly discuss the occurrence conditions and distribute features from the perspectiveof formal syntax and its meanings under different contexts from the perspective offormal semantics. Some scholars noticed that shenme could be used as a NegativePolarity Item besides being used as an interrogative pronoun (C. T. Huang and L.S.Cheng). This explains why “mei (V) shenme” has the same universal negation as theconstruction “mei (V) renhe” ‘not…any’.
..........

Research Questions and Significance of the Study
Chinese construction “mei (V) shenme” can trigger partial negation, however, sofar there is not a consensus on how this meaning generates. Based on the theory ofconversational implicature and metalinguistic negation, this thesis aims to investigateit and discussed some issues closely related to partial negation of the construction.Research questions of the thesis are:(1) Why sentences including the construction “mei (V) shenme” have partialnegation?(2) Can adverb dou in the construction “mei (V) shenme” cancel partial negation?(3) Is shenme the only interrogative pronoun having the ability to trigger partialnegation?(4) Does partial negation be constrained by sentential aspect?The study has great significance on both theoretical aspect and language learning.Firstly, also the most important one is th at it answers the question why “mei (V)shenme” construction has partial negation, and provides reference for the study of theinterrogative pronoun shenme; secondly, it gives positive implications on languagelearning, and it is especially good for foreign language learning.
.........

Chapter One Literature Review

1.1 Defining Partial Negation of “Mei (V) shenme”
Both (1) and (2) are normal in natural language. In (1), from A’s answer “shenme dou mei chi ma?” ‘ate nothing?’, we know that A interprets B’s answer “mei chishenme” as ‘I didn’t eat anything’. We call this meaning as universal negation becausethe negation negates everything that the objects shenme may refer to. In (2), A asksthe same question. C’s answer adds an explanatory clause after the construction “mei(V) shenme”. Here, it doesn’t mean ‘I didn’t eat anything’ because the followingclause “jiu chi-le ge pingguo” ‘just ate an apple’ admits that “I did eat something.”.The negation can not negate everything that the object shenme denotes. We treat thismeaning as partial negation.In Chines