On the Discursive Meaning of the Chinese Modal Adverb Yiran(毅然)
Yiran(毅然),as a Chinese modal adverb,expresses a determination or firm resolution to take upon a certain task,according to various versions of The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary.It has been studied in terms of word class,syntax and semantics,but few studies have dealt with its discourse meaning.Based on the theories of semantic grammar,semantic holism and pragmatic holism,this paper presents a multi-dimensional investigation into this modal adverb to discuss its meaning in discourse.With a data-driven method,this paper aims at providing a thorough description of its logic relations to related clauses in discourse,a clear generalization of its syntactic distribution with regard to sentence types,and a principled explanation of its modal meaning.The discussion starts with a literature review on yiran,including its definition in dictionaries.We then offer an alternative proposal of its meaning in connected discourse,which is:yiran implies a multi-layer logic of"outer adversatives,middle causes and effects,and inner selections".More specifically,it is used to express the agent's firm determination to"give up the old and engage into a new(great)cause",suggesting a conceptual inference of"judging the current situation,being against one's ambition,giving up the old,and opening up a new field".Syntactically,it is found that yiyan functions as an adverb usually in declarative sentences with a person or personal pronouns as the subject rather than in the interrogative,the imperative and the exclamative sentences.And it occurs between the subject and the predicate,not before the subject as the agent.Yiran often modifies verbs such as jueding(决定)'to decide'and xuanbu(宣布)'to declare'in a sentence introducing the effect rather than the cause of an event.Additionally,it naturally modifies such verbs as fangqi(放弃)'to give up'and cidiao(辞掉)'to resign'to express the determination to give up if the effect sentence is a complex one.It can also modify verbs such as chuangban(创l办)'to establish'and kaishi(开始)'to start'to allude to a forthcoming event.In addition,yiran expresses the agent's decision for a goal,which can be seen in the causal clause with the causal markers weile(为了)'in order to',jianyu(鉴于)'due to',and youyu(由于)'because of'.And the goal is usually a great cause such as baoxiao zuguo(报效祖国)'to serve the country'and fuwu qunzhong(服务群众)'to serve the people'.It can be concluded that yiran suggests a kind of resolution to make a decision firmly for a great cause.That is to say,using yiran,the agent intends to express his/her firm decision to"abandon old and to innovate new"for the sake of achieving a carefully considered ambition.
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