On Three Adverbs of Speculation in Ancient Chinese
This paper investigates three adverbs expressing speaker's speculation in Ancient Chinese:wunai(无乃),dewu(得无)and jiangwu(将无).It is argued that the negative element wu(无)in them is not derived from the negative existential meaning,but rather from prohibition.The nature of wu in them could be characterized as an indication of non-realis mood.In particular,it is shown that the combination jiangwu is not a coordinate structure before lexicalization;rather,jiang(将)has a wider scope than wu in the clause.
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