On the Polysemy of Mandarin Conditionals
Vol. 54 No. 3 09/2024
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Title |
On the Polysemy of Mandarin Conditionals |
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Author |
Chang Li-li |
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Genre |
Article |
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Pages |
573-626 |
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DOI |
10.6503/THJCS.202409_54(3).0005 |
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Download |
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Language |
Chinese |
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Key words |
conditionals, compound and complex sentences, polysemy, the content, epistemic, and speech act domains, metalanguage, semantic map |
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Abstract |
This paper attempts to explore the polysemy of compound and complex sentences through Mandarin conditionals. Focusing on the two basic conditional constructions, i.e., the ruguo 如果 construction and the ruguoshuo 如果說 construction, this paper explores their inter-clausal relations as well as the polysemous relations existing within each construct. A conceptual space is thus built, and then the distribution of three domains (i.e., the content domain, the epistemic domain, and the speech act domain) and metalanguage usages are cautiously defined on the space, in order to present the semantic extensions of conditional constructions in greater detail and also to illustrate the differences between the two constructions. Then, by comparing the ruguo construction and the if construction in English, the paper points out that the polysemy of compound and complex sentences is universal but is also subject to the system of compound and complex sentences of each language. |