Ye, Zhengdao (2002). ‘I’m not a ghost!’: Semantic analyses of some ‘emotional adverbs’ in Mandarin Chinese. In Peter Collins, & Mengistu Amberber (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2002 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2002.html. PDF (open access)
This paper constitutes a first attempt to carry out a systematic and in-depth semantic analysis of a selected set of ‘emotional adverbs’ in Mandarin Chinese, an area that has received little attention in Western linguistic discussion. It shows that, as elusive as their meanings are, with a rigorous semantic tool, the core meanings of emotional adverbs can be uncovered and stated in a clear and precise manner, making this category and its semantic contents accessible to both linguists and learners of Mandarin Chinese.
The analysis of you reveals that it expresses more than a simple ‘denial’, as commonly understood. Instead, it expresses a denial of an unstated message, which means an inference is being made by the speaker. In one of its uses, pian suggests a degree of perplexity towards an event that could have been avoided but that happened nonetheless, putting the speaker at the receiving end. In a different use, it is the speaker him- or herself who goes against someone else’s wish.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
