Elsevier

Lingua

Volume 255, May 2021, 103050
Lingua

Three levels of meaning: A case study of yiding in Chinese

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2021.103050Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Yiding can be used as an epistemic modal, as a modal modifier and as a verum marker.

  • Three diagnostic tests are provided to differentiate the three uses of yiding.

  • The three uses of yiding act at three different levels of meaning.

  • The three uses of yiding share a common core in meaning.

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the Chinese multi-functional adverb yiding. It is argued that yiding can act at three different levels of meaning, i.e., as an epistemic modal operating at the semantic level, as a slack regulator operating at the pragmatic level, and as a verum marker operating at the speech act level. These different uses of yiding share a common core, i.e., yiding always looks for the maximal value in some ordering, though the ordering is different in each case.

Introduction

It is well known that the interpretation of grammatical modifiers like really, totally, definitely or absolutely is contextually sensitive and highly flexible. For instance, according to Romero and Han (2004), really can be used in three ways: as an intensifier of gradable predicates (e.g., (1a)), as an epistemic operator in positive yes/no questions (e.g., (1b)),1 and as an adverb that roughly means “in the actual world rather than in some other relevant world” (e.g., (1c)).

Recently, several researchers have adopted a formal approach to account for the various readings of these modifiers. Some of them focus on one particular use of a given modifier (e.g., Romero and Han (2004) and Romero (2015) on epistemic really, Klecha (2014) on absolutely as a modifier of quantifiers, Beltrama (2018) on the pragmatic use of totally), while others develop a unified account of the ways a given modifier is used across categories (e.g., Beltrama and Bochnak (2015) do so for -issimo in Italian and šému in Washo). This paper will follow the latter trend, and take a closer look at a Chinese expression of this kind, the adverb yiding, whose interpretation is highly controversial.2

Lü (1980) distinguishes two meanings of yiding: (i) necessarily, without doubt (see (2)); (ii) some construction expressing one's strong determination (see (3) and (4)).3

As indicated by the translations of the two Chinese sentences in (2), if no more contextual information is given, the necessity expressed by yiding can be must-like or definitely-like. Wu, 2015, Wu, 2018 shares this judgment, but other researchers only notice the must-like reading.

To see how context helps differentiate between these two readings, consider some examples from Wu:

According to Wu, yiding as used in B's response in (5), is an epistemic modal, because the statement Zhangsan yiding xihuan Xiaomei is a conjecture based on B's observation that Zhangsan pays much attention to every move of Xiaomei. In (6), however, yiding is not an epistemic modal, because B says that it is a widely known fact that Zhangsan likes Xiaomei — not just a conjecture. Wu claims that in (6) yiding is an intensifier, used by B to emphasize the truth of the proposition that Zhangsan likes Xiaomei.

Although, as Wu says, there is a distinction to be made here, it will be shown that the latter yiding is better treated as a verum marker – which is a more general concept that also covers the occurrences of yiding in imperatives and commissives (cf. (4)).

Regarding the proper analysis of yiding in (3) and (4), opinions differ as well. Peng (2007), Tsai (2010), Chen (2011) and Zhang and Xiao (2015) believe that it should always be seen as a root modal. Pan (2017) states that sometimes it indicates a certain kind of illocutionary act, e.g., a command (as in (4a)) or a promise (as in (4b)).4 Wu, 2015, Wu, 2018 treats yiding in these cases as he treated it in the case of (6), i.e. as an intensifier emphasizing the truth of the statement. Under the present analysis, these views are not correct. On the contrary, in some of these cases (e.g., (3)) yiding is used as a modal modifier, while in a case like (4) it is used as a verum marker, as in (6).

The remainder of this paper will first argue that yiding can be used in three different ways, i.e., as an epistemic modal (e.g., (5)), as a modal modifier (e.g., (3)) and as a verum marker (e.g., (4) and (6)). After presenting several diagnostic tests that point to a genuine empirical difference between them, a formal analysis of the three uses of yiding and an exploration of the relations between them follow.

Section snippets

Yiding as an epistemic modal

There is a broad consensus that yiding can be used as an epistemic modal. In addition to Wu's example (5), this is further testified by the following scenarios.

(7)Scenario 1: I am in my office, looking at the rain through the window.
Empty CellScenario 2: I am in my office. I can’t see what happens outside. Now a person carrying a wet umbrella comes in.
Empty Cella.Waimian zai xiayu. (Scenario 1 , Scenario 2 )
Empty Celloutside  at rain
Empty Cell‘It is raining outside.’

Empty Cellb.Waimian yiding zai xiayu. (Scenario 1 ×, Scenario 2 )
Empty Celloutside 

Interaction with negation

The first diagnostic test concerns negation. Yiding as an epistemic modal or a modal modifier can appear in the scope of negation (see (22)), but as a verum marker it cannot. The latter always sits at a higher position than negation (see (23) and (24)).17

Analysis

Formal semantics offers two approaches from which one can choose, viz. the static and the dynamic approach. According to the classic static approach, the meaning of a sentence is given by its truth conditions, whereas the dynamic approach identifies the meaning of a sentence with the (potential) change it brings about in the cognitive state of an addressee.29

Conclusion

In this paper, the different uses of the Chinese multi-functional adverb yiding were investigated with reference to cross-linguistic data. The existing classifications of yiding's usage were found to be incorrect, and three ways in which yiding is used were distinguished, i.e., as an epistemic modal, as a modal modifier and as a verum marker. This new classification is supported by a series of grammatical and pragmatic diagnostic tests. Next, a formal approach was adopted to analyze the three

Funding

This research has been funded by the Humanity and Social Science Foundation of the Chinese Ministry of Education (Project No.19YJC740082).

Acknowledgements

We really appreciate Prof. Frank Veltman's great support of this paper. We also would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments on this paper.

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