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The Epistemic Modality and Subjectivization of “Kongpa”(“恐怕”)

풍군위 1

1河北大学

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In Modern Chinese, “Kongpa”(恐怕) can be divided into two types: “Kongpa1” (Verb) and “Kongpa2” (Adverb), which can be distinguished by the Syntactic structure. “Kongpa2” can be divided into two types: “Kongpa2-1” and “Kongpa2-2”. “Kongpa2-1” can express the speaker subject’s the apprehensional-epistemic modality about the proposition; however the “Kongpa2-2” can express the speaker subject’s the epistemic modality about the proposition. The differences between the “Kongpa2-1” and “Kongpa2-2” were resulted from two types of different Pragmatic Inferences: “Kongpa2-1” can be used to express the pragmatic inference in the resultant Clause and “Kongpa2-2” can be used to express the abductive inference in the causative Clause. The development from “Kongpa1” and “Kongpa2-1” to “Kongpa2-2” reflects the semantical evolvement and intersubjectification of “Kongpa”.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.