Wang li believes that the interrogative modal particle"吗(ma)"first appeared in A Dream of Red Mansions in Qing Dynasty.Ota Tatsuo also holds the same view.The first example of"吗(ma)"is also from A Dream of Red Mansionsin Chinese Dictionary and Chinese Dictionary.Some people also believe that the earliest appearance of"吗(ma)"should be in the Hongwenge edition of Forty Questions and An-swers of Languages in Qing Dynasty.There are a total of 33 items with"吗(ma)"and it is believed that"吗(ma)"is the result of language contact between Manchu and Chinese.Language is characterized by gradual change,especially grammar,and the same is true for"吗(ma)".It seems unlikely that 33"吗(ma)"suddenly appeared in 40 questions and answers in 1758.According to our investigation,there are some examples of the use of"吗(ma)"in Ming Dynasty operas.Compared with vernacular novels,operas are more colloquial,and the corpus is reliable,which proved that there was indeed"吗(ma)"in the late Ming Dynasty.Although some of them were published in the early Qing Dynasty,but they were used earlier than Forty Questions and Answers of Languages in Qing Dynasty(175 8).Therefore,"吗(ma)"is inherent in Chinese language and is not the result of the language contact between Chinese and Manchu.
interrogative modal particles吗(ma)year of useMing Dynastydramastyle
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