A mechanism of verbalization and semantic derivation of potential events in modern Chinese.

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24720177
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: KATSUKAWA YUKO 名古屋大学, 国際言語文化研究科, 准教授 (40377768)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 中国語 / 可能表現 / 可能の助動詞 / 可能補語 / モダリティ / 文法項目の導入順序

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to clarify how complicated divisions of Chinese potential expressions are structured based on semantic roots and what derivation route individual expressions follow, and also to reveal the mechanism that supports those specific derivations. This study aimed at systematizing the grammatical category of <potential> in Chinese more reasonably and comprehensively by considering each potential expression from syntactic/semantic perspectives and clarified 1) the meanings and derivation routes of auxiliary verbs, “hui（会）” and “neng（能）”, 2) the relevance with the form and modality of potential, and 3) the communicative function and pragmatic characteristic of “keyi（可以）” while mainly considering auxiliary verbs which express potential and comparing with the form of potential complement.

Free Research Field

中国語学