A contrastive study of the Chinese and Japanese mood type systems
-
Fang Geng
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to contrast the Chinese and Japanese mood type systems and their realizations following the network developed within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. It is found that: Chinese and Japanese show similarity in the delicacy of the mood type systems, but Chinese has established a more prominent status for unbiased polarity seeker and the choice of content than Japanese does; the two languages display shared features in the use of Mood particles, qualitative and quantitative groups, the alternation of word orders, and the use of certain structures for Mood realization, and they differ in basic word orders, the preferences for certain grammatical patterns, and the prominence in depending on vocabularies and morphological changes. The findings are rooted in the functional and typological prominences of the two languages, which may further shed light on interpersonal communication patterns in the two societies.
1 Introduction
The studies of Mood[1] remain perplexing because of the obscurity of its definition, the multiplicity in its function, and the complexity of the related language phenomena that have not been thoroughly researched. The definition of Mood varies with different research approaches (e.g. Jespersen 2015 [1924], 2017 [1933]; Lyons 1977; Palmer 2001; Portner 2004, 2007, 2009; Quirk et al. 1985; Sadock and Zwicky 1985), which causes conflicts and even contradictions between various definitions. Furthermore, the inclusiveness of Mood means that it lacks a clear boundary of the functional extension, which is particularly so if it correlates with the concept of Modality (see Bybee et al. 1994; Lyons 1977). Seen from the linguistic form, Mood-related language phenomena become increasingly complicated, posing challenges for both linguistic researchers and language learners. If seen from an extra-linguistic perspective, Mood is closely related to such concepts as context, interpersonal exchange pattern, and cross-cultural communication. Being so influenced by context, Mood thus incorporates issues concerning the parties of exchange, which are then motivated by interpersonal exchange patterns. Eventually, the findings concerned will refer to cross-cultural communication for further explanation.
The existing studies on Mood do not offer satisfactory answers, leaving room for reconsidering the definition of the concept, re-categorizing the concept based on reasonable motivations, describing related linguistic phenomena, elaborating with reliable data, concluding the features, and finally, theorizing the issue. Therefore, this paper, together with its series, focuses on Mood from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL henceforth) established by Halliday (1985, 1994 and further developed by Matthiessen (1995), Fawcett (2000), Martin (2000), Thompson (2013), and He et al. (Forthcoming), which is an appliable theory that approaches language considering both its functions and forms. Also, with the help of its socio-semiotic concern, the connotation and denotation of Mood will be further clarified with its social features.
From the Systemic Functional perspective, this paper takes the framework of He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 6) as its theoretical basis, which, while taking mood as the initial and primary system entry, categorizes the phenomenon into Mood type and Mood force. The former will be the focus of this paper, including declarative, interrogative, and imperative; the latter will be addressed in another paper.
Most works on the mood system focus on Indo-European languages, such as Portuguese by Marques (2004), German by Steiner and Teich (2004), and French by Caffarel (2004). The result is that non-Indo-European languages, particularly Chinese and Japanese, which show special features in expressing Mood have been severely neglected. The supportive linguistic data of these languages will bring new insights into the studies concerning Mood since they categorize the concept in more detail at the system level. Furthermore, the special language features that demonstrate Mood also give us insights into typology. Considering the needs of both function and form, this paper presents a contrastive analysis of Chinese and Japanese.
2 Previous studies of Mood
The studies of Mood that focus on language forms usually concern Indo-European languages. These important works, which address the issue from three viewpoints, namely verbal Mood (see Jespersen 2015 [1924], 2017 [1933]; Lyons 1977; Palmer 2001), sentence Mood (see Portner 2004, 2007, 2009; Quirk et al. 1985; Sadock and Zwicky 1985) and notional Mood (see Portner 2009), fall short regarding the linguistic features of non-Indo-European languages which should have been considered from the contrastive and typological perspectives. To provide such a perspective, the following sections will mainly focus on Chinese and Japanese Mood studies and review the relevant literature.
2.1 Studies of Chinese Mood
The studies of Chinese Mood mostly focus on the functions and emotions that Mood may convey. For the former, scholars believe the major feature of Mood is to express its function (see the studies by Fan 1998; Huang and Liao 2003; Liu 2012 [1920]; Zhang 1911 [1907]); yet several other scholars hold that Mood also expresses the speakers’ emotions (see Gao 1986 [1948]; He 1992; Lü 2014 [1956]; Qi 2002a, 2002b; Wang 2011 [1943]) except for its functional feature.
The function of Mood, as held by the studies of Fan (1998), Huang and Liao (2003), Liu (2012 [1920]), and Zhang (1911 [1907]), is to reach a communicative goal. Based on this viewpoint, the mood system is divided into declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative, which shares the same categorization with sentence Mood as held by Portner (2004, 2007, 2009, Quirk et al. (1985), and Sadock and Zwicky (1985).
Though indicating that the function of Mood is communicative, these scholars did not further elaborate: while Fan (1998) and Zhang (1911 [1907]) believed that the purpose of Mood is for communicative expression, they offered no explanation on this purpose which, based on its literal meaning, might cover an enormous range of concepts and phenomena. Moreover, the function of Mood needs to be identified by its prominence and hierarchy under contextual situations whose relationship with the purpose of Mood remains untouched.
The definition of Mood by some scholars falls into circular reasoning (Zhao and Shi 2011). The studies of Liu (2012 [1920]) and Huang and Liao (2003) define Mood by way of sentence patterns which in turn have different types because of the different Mood features that they harbor. This association between Mood and sentence pattern fails to clarify either of them because the definition of Mood is not made based on its functionality, which inevitably intertwines Mood with the form of language, such as sentence patterns.
If Mood expresses not only function but also speakers’ emotions, as held by Gao (1986 [1948]), He (1992), Lü (2014 [1956]), Qi (2002a, 2002b), and Wang (2011 [1943]), the phenomenon then becomes much more complicated.
The Mood of Gao (1986 [1948]) includes: negating, confirmative, interrogative, doubting, directive, and exclamative. He (1992) categorizes his Mood into: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamative, cognitive, modal, obligating, optative, unexpected, expected, realizing, fluking, and expressing. Lü (2014 [1956]) believes that Mood should contain: indicative, confirmative, presumptive, interrogative, counter-interrogative, negotiating, suggesting, agreeing, directive, prohibitive, and exclamative. In the Mood of Qi (2002a, 2002b), the following categories are included: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamative, possibility, optative, permissive, and realizing. As shown in the above description, scholars share the idea of including declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative into the Mood categories, which indicates the fundamental status of these types. The Mood of Wang (2011 [1943]) includes the following categories: determinative, elaborative, exaggerative, interrogative, counter-interrogative, assumptive, presumptive, imperative, urging, tolerating, dissatisfying, and argumentative. However, the details in certain categories illustrate the scholars’ different understandings of the Mood functions. As indicated in Gao (1986 [1948]), He (1992), Lü (2014 [1956]), and Wang (2011 [1943]), Mood function is closely related to the expression of emotions, which thus raises the question concerning the coverage and boundaries of emotions. It is hard to justify why these kinds of emotions, rather than others, are included and how they should be separated clearly from each other. These are not sufficiently addressed in the aforementioned studies.
Qi (2002a, 2002b) differs from the other scholars in stressing the prominence of functions rather than emotions: his Mood is divided into the Mood of function and the Mood of volition, the former aiming to communicate and the latter to express emotions and attitudes. Qi does well to show the comprehensiveness of Mood. However, the criteria for categorization are unconvincingly based on the language form. Following a bottom-up method to define the phenomenon, Qi’s Mood shows fallacies in the definitions of each category, the boundaries between each type, the mismatch between language forms and functions, and finally, the overlapping of Mood functions and emotions which inevitably indicates that a clause may bear two kinds of Mood at the same time, with one for performing function and one for expressing emotion.
In summary, the studies of Chinese Mood usually prefer to approach the issue by way of language form and show less care for Mood function. Even for those who pay attention to the function, the elaborations are carried out without a systematic grounding, which leads to obscurity between different functional categories. Therefore, further research is needed to re-approach the issue with functionality in mind and with a systematic foundation.
2.2 Studies of Japanese Mood
The studies of Japanese Mood approach the issue from the perspectives of morphological changes (e.g. Teramura 1982), the purpose of speaking (e.g. Suzuki 1972), and the attitude conveyed by Mood (e.g. Nitta 1997 [1991], 1999; Masuoka 1991, 1999), all of which are demonstrative of Japanese linguistic features.
Teramura (1982) approaches the issue from the language forms of Japanese, dividing Mood into three levels. Each level is realized by certain language phenomena: the first level is realized by the use of inflected verb forms; the second relies on auxiliary verbs; and the third level refers to the use of particles, interjections, conjunctions, and honorifics in Mood expressions. By this study, he aims to re-categorize the particles in the Japanese language, bringing new insights into the concept of Mood. While the study sheds light on the features of Japanese particles, it remains obscure in terms of the functions and the realizations because the categorization of Mood is laid upon the language form, again generating the circular reasoning seen in the studies of Chinese.
Regarding the purpose of speaking (Suzuki 1972) and the attitude conveyed by Mood (Masuoka 1991, 1999; Nitta 1997 [1991], 1999), the Japanese Mood is reflective of its functional features with declarative, interrogative, and imperative as the shared categories by both approaches. Furthermore, Nitta (1997 [1991]) includes a fourth category of expressive into Japanese Mood which carries the hope and wish of the speaker. Yet these two types fall into the category of declarative in Suzuki’s model (1972). The details of the two approaches are shown in the following:
Suzuki (1972) categorizes Mood into declarative (including assertion, guess, rumor, determination, hope, and wish), interrogative, (including assertion, guess, determination, hope, and the addressee’s response to the determination), and imperative, (including invitation, directive, and request). And the Mood of Nitta (1997 [1991]) contains: declarative (including the description of phenomena and judgment), interrogative (including the judgmental and emotional interrogative), imperative (including directive and persuade), and expressive (including hope, and wish).
The divergent categorizations of hope and wish carry similar but nuanced meanings in the two approaches. According to Suzuki (1972), the two categories, hope, and wish, express the speaker’s “purposes” which therefore belong to the sub-types of declarative. In Nitta’s view (1997 [1991]), hope, and wish in the expressive Mood express the speaker’s “attitudes”. The two may convey different focuses regarding the Mood functions, but the inherent obscurity makes it difficult to further clarify the division between “purpose” and “attitude”.
The same goes for some categories like a guess, rumor, the addressee’s response to the determination, and invitation in Suzuki’s model (1972). It is also unclear regarding the functional differences between judgmental declarative and judgmental interrogative in Nitta’s model (1997 [1991]). This is due to the subjectivity in terms of categorizing criteria that are overwhelmingly laid upon meaning rather than function.
2.3 Contrastive studies of Chinese and Japanese Mood
As mentioned above, the existing studies of Chinese and Japanese Mood remain problematic due to the lack of clarification between the form, meaning, and function, and the lack of theoretical guidance from an integrated angle. As a result, the constrastive studies of Chinese and Japanese Mood also show similar problems such as the overall focus on language forms rather than functions (for the studies of language forms that realize Mood, see Tamaji and Shoji 2005; the contrastive study of le and ta in the uses of Mood, see Lin 2010; the contrastive study of shi bu shi and dewa-nai-ka, see Zhang 2018; and the meaning of adverbs when expressing extent in Chinese and Japanese, see Zhao and Lu 2018), and on a certain language phenomenon concerning Mood (such as Mood particles, see Bai and Mao 2003; Shu 1995).
The analysis at the system level remains unaddressed in the contrastive studies of Chinese and Japanese Mood, for a guiding framework is required to cover the aspects concerned under which the contrast of systems, functions, and language forms can receive balanced attention. Doing this will bring insights to the linguistic perspective and shed light on the social interaction patterns considering the social features of the issue, which will add a new dimension to the Mood studies.
Therefore, this paper hopes to address the issue using SFL (Halliday 1985, 1994; Halliday and Matthiessen 2004, 2014) for the contrastive study of Mood in Chinese and Japanese. Its theoretical guidance and appliable features offer a comprehensive systematic framework and make it possible to relate functions to forms that cover the research targets of this paper: the mood system (functions) and the realizations (language forms) in Chinese and Japanese.
Interpersonal metafunction addresses how the systems are organized according to the kind of meaning that the language enacts (Martin 2018: 3). Seen from this dimension, all languages have two roles in exchange, giving and demanding, for information and goods-&-services (Halliday 1985). To go a step further, their combinations function interpersonally as the mood systems which are then realized at the lexico-grammar level involving the details of different ranks of the language, such as clauses, groups/phrases, words, and morphemes (Martin 2018: 3). As indicated by He et al. (Forthcoming), the studies of Mood move gradually towards semantics because it is increasingly recognized that Mood and its responsibility for interpersonal semantics is significant, particularly after more languages are observed. As Halliday (1985) focuses on Mood as a grammatical system at the clause rank, highlighting that the subject, finite, and the exchange between them are important for different Mood types to be realized in English, Fawcett argues that Mood should be further semanticalized with the roles of exchange described in further detail and with the interpersonal meaning deeply involved in the network.[2]
The issue of Mood has attracted much attention from the scholars of the Systemic Functional perspective, including the studies of Mood functions and the establishment of mood networks (see Fawcett 2017; Halliday 1985, 1994; Halliday and Matthiessen 2004, 2014; He et al. Forthcoming).
The SFL studies of Chinese Mood are carried out from two perspectives: the description of features demonstrated concerning Mood (e.g. Hu 1994; Zhang 2009) and the construction of the mood system (e.g. Halliday and McDonald 2004; Li 2007). Based on the studies of Hu (1994) and Zhang (2009), the following features in Chinese are demonstrated in realizing Mood: 1) Chinese contains no finite whose subjects are only located at the initial of the clause; 2) Mood particles at the final of the clause are possible to indicate Mood types; 3) there is no change of location for interrogative words; among others. In terms of the system construction, Halliday and McDonald (2004) and Li (2007) both constructed the Chinese mood system with the basics of Mood and Modality involved in the description. Some Mood types of Chinese characteristics, such as alternative interrogative, are addressed in the system construction.
The SFL studies of Japanese Mood have been carried out by Japanese scholars such as Teruya (2004, 2007, 2017 who highlights the characteristic features of Japanese Mood described under the framework of Halliday (1994) and structures the network of the Japanese mood system. Such features include the functions of predicators and subjects, interpersonal particles used for negotiation, politeness, honorifics, etc. His network (2004, 2007, 2017) covers the basic Mood types of Japanese with typical realizations, which offered inspiration for scholars such as Fukuda (2014, 2015, 2021 to provide readjustments and elaborations on the Japanese mood system.
The contrastive analysis of Mood is carried out under the typological angle. In Language Typology: A Functional Perspective (Caffarel et al. 2004), the mood network is discussed in a variety of languages including English, Chinese, and Japanese. The diverse array of participating scholars offers an inclusive discussion of Mood which is nonetheless insufficient in discussing the contrastive and typological features due to the independence of each network adopted in each language. Therefore, a proper framework is needed which is dedicated to both describing languages independently and making contrasts between them.
Considering this need, He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 6) readjust and re-establish a mood network, particularly for contrastive analysis, that carries the issue from a functional standpoint and fully takes into consideration the different language features, particularly in Chinese. Taking into consideration the features of the language that give more prominence to meaning, He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 6) incorporate the mood type system and Modality, with the latter adjusted and renamed as mood force system, into the same mood network; the former leads the description of the methods of exchange and the latter of the “language force” embedded in the exchange. The details of the framework are shown in Figure 1.
mood system developed by He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 6).
The system built by He et al. (Forthcoming) has its motivation from the finding that the semanticization of the mood system increasingly deepens from that of Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, 2014 to Fawcett (2017), being more appliable to languages other than Indo-European ones. The increasing semanticization of the mood system can thus cover more language features, which, in the end, improves the system building.
Therefore, the system built by He et al. (Forthcoming), with semantics as its orientation and with the function of Mood as the basic standards, categorizes the mood type system into indicative and imperative, which follows the tradition of Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, 2014. Indicative, indicating the exchange of information, contains declarative and interrogative; exclamative, a sub-type of declarative, contains five sub-categories, as is the result of semanticization;[3] interrogative is so categorized based on the consideration of language features in Chinese (Halliday and McDonald 2004; Li 2007), containing the polarity seeking, new content seeking and the choice of content.
Imperative, indicating the exchange of goods-&-services, is further categorized with compulsoriness and power relations, for these two indexes are engaged with the two elements in the exchange – how the content is exchanged and by whom. In this way, the sub-types of imperative, readjusted by He et al. (Forthcoming) based on Fawcett’s system,[4] are directive, request, ruling, hope, suggestion, and the statement of wish.
Considering the characteristics of Chinese and Japanese, two idiosyncratic languages with prominent features, this paper approaches the issue of Mood based on the framework of He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 6), taking primarily the mood type system as the focus of this paper. The mood force system will be addressed in another paper of the series.
In conclusion, this paper approaches the mood type system from the Systemic Functional perspective, focusing on its system options and the corresponding language forms that realize the functions. The elaborations of the systems and realizations are supported with data from authentic materials, including literature in Chinese and Japanese, scripts of situation dramas, and databases such as BCC corpus,[5] the database in the project “Database Construction of Language Resources of Those Countries along the Belt and Road” (DCLRTCBR henceforth),[6] the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ),[7] and Aozora Bunko (AOZORA henceforth).[8]
3 A contrastive study of the Chinese and Japanese mood type systems
Following the mood network established by He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 6), two sub-systems in Chinese and Japanese come into focus: mood type and mood force, the former being the focus of this paper.
The Chinese and Japanese mood type systems both contain three major types: declarative, interrogative, and imperative. Clauses with declarative Mood aim to offer information to the addressees; while offering information in exclamation, speakers use clauses with exclamative Mood, a sub-type of the declarative. Interrogative enables speakers to request information which can be polarity seekers (asking for yes or no), seekers of new contents (asking for participants and circumstance elements), and the choice of content (seeking the choice between different options). Speakers using imperative Mood are prone to initiate exchanges of goods-&-services with the addressees, with the speakers and addressees together, or with the third party, in ways that can be either compulsory or mild.
For these three types of Mood, descriptive and contrastive analysis stem from the delicacy of the mood type system and the linguistic resources used to realize the mood type system. The delicacy of the mood type system shows a tendency of increasing delicacy as the system moves from left to right (Quiroz 2018: 138). In describing the two languages, the delicacy of each demonstrates the features of constructing interpersonal meaning in different cultures, thus offering insights into the social interaction patterns embedded within the cultural similarities or differences. This paper contrasts the linguistic resources of both languages from the level of lexico-grammar which include: 1) the use of pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, particles, and other lexical items, and the use of such groups as nominative, qualitative, and quantitative, etc. as following the terminology in Cardiff Grammar; 2) the clauses patterns, formulaic structures, morphological changes, and other grammatical-related resources.
3.1 Chinese and Japanese grammatical units
Chinese is not categorized as an inflecting language whose words vary morphologically according to grammatical function (Li 2007: 21); Japanese is an agglutinative language that shows some inflecting features (Lieber 2009: 133). It is thus necessary to account briefly for the grammatical units to highlight the linguistic features demonstrated in the realization of mood type systems with the characteristics of the two languages. The following account is made under the structure of Cardiff Grammar established by Fawcett (2000), a different sub-approach of SFL on the account for functional grammar.
3.1.1 Word classes
Word classes that are most closely related to the issues discussed in this paper include the nominal, verbal, adjective, adverb, and particle (part of the classes selected to refer to Li 2007: 22). The nominal class contains the common noun, pronoun, determiner, measurer, and classifier; the verbal include the verb, (prepositional) minor verb, auxiliary verb, and copula; the adjective talks about Chinese adjectives and the Japanese i-adjectives and na-adjectives; the adverb includes the clausal adverb, verbal adverb, and degree adverb; lastly, Chinese and Japanese Mood particles and the Japanese structural markers are addressed in the analysis. Among them, classifiers, Japanese adjectives, and particles are particular to the two languages compared with Indo-European languages.
Classifiers are used in some languages to clarify the types of things that the nouns refer to. Both Chinese and Japanese have classifiers between the measurers and the nouns (Kindaichi 2017; Lü 2014 [1956]). Within the nominal groups, measurers and classifiers can together function as the pre-modifiers of the head (He et al. 2015: 89).
Japanese adjectives are classified as i-adjectives and na-adjectives; i-adjectives can directly modify nouns and have the potential for morphological changes when used as the predicators; na-adjectives require the structural particle na for modifying nouns and have no potential for realizing predicators (Kindaichi 1982: 232–233).
Two kinds of particles are addressed here: Mood particles and structural particles. Mood particles are used both in Chinese and Japanese whose typical examples are ma, ya, la in Chinese (Wang 2011 [1943]: 247) and yo, ne in Japanese (also called negotiatory particles by Teruya [2017]). Mood particles are used at the end of the clause as an independent unit for expressing interpersonal meaning (Teruya 2004: 191). Structural particles are typically used in Japanese as markers for grammatical elements (Teruya 2004: 187), such as wa for topical element, ga for nominative, and o for accusative. Chinese also has structural particles, such as de, that indicate the relationship between adjacent elements (Wang 2011 [1943]: 205), though this is not the focus of this paper.
3.1.2 Groups and phrases
At the lexico-grammar level, groups and phrases are at a higher rank than words and thus can realize the elements in the clause. Those most closely related to the issues discussed in this paper include the nominal group, qualitative group, quantitative group, and prepositional phrase.
The nominal group is used to describe the thing and can realize the subject and the complement of the clause. In Chinese, the nominal group can also realize the predicator (He et al. 2015: 115). The head of the nominal group carries the prominent meaning of the group and can be filled by a noun or pronoun (He et al. 2015: 76).
The qualitative group describes the status of the thing or of the event which contains an apex (usually filled by an adjective) and potential determiners such as the degree determiner (usually filled by a degree adverb) (He et al. 2015: 127). A case in point is the feichang kuai (‘very fast’) in the structure pao de feichang kuai (‘run very fast’).
The quantitative group describes the quantity of the thing or of the event which contains an amount (filled by a measurer or an adjective) and potential adjustors (filled by a proposition or an adverb) (He et al. 2015: 150).
The prepositional phrase mostly functions as the adjunct in the clause and is composed of a miner verb and a completive (He et al. 2015: 175).
3.1.3 Clause elements
The clause elements most closely related to the issues discussed in this paper include the subject, predicator, complement, and adjunct.
The clause subject in Chinese can be realized by the nominal group, qualitative group, and clause (He et al. 2015: 54; He 2017: 954). The clause subject in Japanese can be realized by the nominal group or the qualitative group and clause that are nominalized. Yet, the subject in the Japanese clause is typically implicit and inferable (Teruya 2004: 195).
The clause predicator in Chinese can be realized by the verb, nominal group, qualitative group, and clause (He et al. 2015: 38; He 2017: 958). The clause predicator in Japanese can be realized by the verb, copula, and qualitative group[9] (Teruya 2004: 194). The i-adjective, if functioning as the apex of the qualitative group, can realize the predicator since it has the “narrative” feature (Kindaichi 1982: 233).
The Chinese clause complement can be realized by the nominal group, adjective group, and clause (He et al. 2015: 58). The Japanese clause complement, similar to the subject, can be realized by the nominal group, or nominalized qualitative group and clause (concluded from Teruya 2004).
The Chinese clause adjunct can be realized by the nominal group, adjective group, prepositional phrase, and clause (He et al. 2015: 61). And the clause adjunct in Japanese can be realized by the nominal group, qualitative group, and post-prepositional phrase marked by de, kara, made, and ni (Teruya 2004: 188).
3.2 Declarative
Speakers using declaratives aim to offer information to the hearers. As a result, the declarative is the most frequently used one among the three types of Mood, and this is the first and foremost to be described.
This section contrasts two aspects: the delicacy of the declarative in Chinese and Japanese and the linguistic resources used to realize the declarative. The delicacy of declarative Mood in Chinese and Japanese will be contrasted to figure out the similarities or differences, if any, between the two nations when their people try to give information during communication. Then, lexical and grammatical resources will be focused to find the linguistic features of the two languages used for expressing interpersonal meanings.
Furthermore, exclamative Mood, the special form of declarative specifically for expressing exclamation, is addressed here from the two aspects of delicacy and linguistic resources.
3.2.1 Delicacy in the declarative Mood
Chinese and Japanese declarative demonstrate commonness in the polarity, both containing the positive and negative. It is attributed to the general position of declarative in a language – to give information, which enables it to become the most frequently used one among all the Mood types. The commonness in delicacy of Chinese and Japanese declarative reflects the similarity in the pattern of interpersonal communication of the two nations.
The positive and negative polarity of Chinese and Japanese declaratives are exemplified in the following clauses:[10]
| ta | ye | feichang | xihuan | yuehan | zhe | liang=ge | zi. |
| she | also | very | like | Yuehan | this | two=cl | character |
| ‘She also likes the two characters of Yuehan very much.’ | |||||||
| (BCC) | |||||||
| yi=ge | ye | bu | xihuan. |
| one-cl | also | neg | like |
| ‘I don’t like any of them.’ | |||
| (BCC) | |||
Clauses (1) and (2) are Chinese declaratives of the positive and negative polarity respectively. As can be seen from the components, the negative declarative is realized by the negator bu. Other ways to realize negative declarative will be addressed in Section 3.1.2.
| doubutsu | no | naka | ni | wa | ne-teiru |
| animal | genmark | inside | destmark | topmark | sleep-prog |
| jikan | no | hou | ga | oki-teiru | jikan |
| time | genmark | side | sbjmark | wake-prog | time |
| yori | nagai | mono | ga | ooi. | |
| than | long | thing | sbjmark | many | |
| ‘Many animals spend more time sleeping than staying awake.’ | |||||
| (DCLRTCBR) | |||||
| ima | wa | nani | mo | oboe-te-i-nai. |
| now | topmark | what | either | remember-conti-prog-neg |
| ‘Now I don’t remember anything.’ | ||||
| (DCLRTCBR) | ||||
Clauses (3) and (4) are Japanese declaratives with positive and negative polarity. The negative one is realized by the morphological change -nai at the end of the verb. Also, other ways to realize the negative polarity will be addressed in Section 3.2.2.
3.2.2 Linguistic resources in the declarative Mood
This section addresses the linguistic resources used in the realization of declarative Mood in Chinese and Japanese from a contrastive perspective. The following sub-sections start with the similarities or differences of the linguistic resources used in Chinese and Japanese.
3.2.2.1 Similarity in using Mood particles
Mood particles are used in both Chinese and Japanese declaratives. Though neither in Chinese nor Japanese do Mood particles serve as differential markers, they are important descriptive features in declarative clauses.
| wo | zhende | chi | bao | le! |
| I | really | eat | full | mp |
| ‘I am really full!’ | ||||
| (BCC) | ||||
| yao | jiu | … | ye | bushi | bu | keneng | la | … |
| want | save | also | neg | no | possible | mp | ||
| ‘It is not impossible … to save him …’ | ||||||||
| (BCC) | ||||||||
In clauses (5) and (6), we see the frequently-used Mood particle le and its variation la. While the latter carries stronger emotion than the former, they both express the sense of termination for the declarative clauses.
Japanese also shows rich variations of Mood particles. The following three clauses will show the use of three common but nuanced ones that mark the end of the declarative clauses:
| koitsu | wa | yooi | na | koto | jyanai | yo. |
| this | topmark | easy | adjmark | thing | cop (neg) | mp |
| ‘This is not an easy thing.’ | ||||||
| (AOZORA) | ||||||
| waka-tta | you | desu | ne |
| understand-pst | like | cop (hon) | mp |
| ‘It seems that you understood.’ | |||
| (BCCWJ) | |||
| sou | desu | yo | ne |
| this | cop (hon) | mp | mp |
| ‘It is so.’ | |||
| (BCCWJ) | |||
Particles yo, ne and the combination of the two yo ne in clauses (7), (8), and (9) demonstrate differences in meaning: yo implies the speaker’s belief that the hearer does not know or agree with the proposition stated in the clause; ne, on the contrary, shows the speaker’s belief that the hearer knows or agrees with the proposition; while yo ne together carry such a nuance that the speaker, though believing that the hearer knows the proposition, hopes to confirm it. Therefore, clause (9) expresses the speaker’s attitude first (‘It is so.’) and confirms with the hearer on this attitude.
3.2.2.2 Difference in basic word order
The difference of Chinese and Japanese in basic word order is shown in the declarative clauses, which is Subject ˆ Predicator ˆ Complement for Chinese,[11] and Subject ˆ Complement ˆ Predicator for Japanese, as supported by the following two examples:
| wo | yao | chi | pingguo! |
| I | want | eat | apple |
| ‘I want to eat an apple!’ | |||
| (BCC) | |||
| hito | ni | mono | o | okuru |
| people | destmark | thing | objmark | send |
| toiu | koui | wa | kore | kurai |
| like.this | behavior | topmark | this | degree |
| no | kinagasa | ga | hitsuyou | da. |
| genmark | patience | sbjmark | necessary | cop |
| ‘The behavior like giving things to people needs patience.’ | ||||
| (DCLRTCBR) | ||||
The basic word order in Chinese (Subject ˆ Predicator ˆ Complement) is shown in clause (10) as wo (‘I’) ˆ yao (‘want’ ) chi (‘eat’) ˆ pingguo (‘apple’); the word order Subject ˆ Complement ˆ Predicator of Japanese is shown clear by kinagasa (‘patience’) ˆ ga (subject marker) ˆ hitsuyou (‘necessary’) ˆ da (copula) in clause (11), with ga marking the subject.
The basic word order remains the same both in Chinese and Japanese negative declaratives:
| wo | bu-chi | xiangcai | … |
| I | neg-eat | coriander | |
| ‘I don’t eat coriander …’ | |||
| (BCC) | |||
| saikin | no | moko | wa, | gohan | o | tabe-nai. |
| recent | srtmark | Moko | topmark | rice | objmark | eat-neg |
| ‘Recently, Moko doesn’t eat rice.’ | ||||||
| (BCCWJ) | ||||||
As shown in clauses (12) and (13), both Chinese and Japanese negative declaratives demonstrate the same word order as the positive ones, for their elements to realize negation are both combined with the predicator, as the Chinese bu-chi (‘not-eat’) and the Japanese tabe-nai (‘eat’ with a morphological change for expressing negation).
3.2.2.3 Dependence of Japanese on morphological changes
Different from Chinese which lacks morphological change, Japanese demonstrates dependence on morphological changes of the elements that realize predicators. Predicators in Japanese can be realized by verbs (including copula) and i-adjectives, all of them being equipped with morphological potentials for expressing honorification, register, negation, tense, and various modalities such as probability, phase, obligation, and permission (Teruya 2004: 194). The following clauses show more details:
| nanni | mo | wakari-ma-sen. |
| what | also | understand-hon-neg |
| ‘I don’t understand anything more.’ | ||
| (BCCWJ) | ||
In clause (14), the verb wakari-ma-sen that realizes the predicator combines morphemes for honorification and negation (-ma-sen) which are located sequentially at the end. Such inflectional changes are common for Japanese verbs.
Similarly, the copula that realizes the predicator can also incorporate extra information, such as the following case:
| amari | fu-kohei | dearu |
| too | un-fair | cop (wri) |
| ‘This is too unfair.’ | ||
| (BCCWJ) | ||
Clause (15) shows a predicator realized by the copula dearu in the form that indicates that the clause is in the style of written language or is spoken by someone who talks in a formal style.
Besides verbs and copula, Japanese i-adjectives that are capable of inflectional change also serve as the predicators. As in clause (16):
| nigedashi-ta | hito | mo | sukuna-ku-naka-tta. |
| escape-pst | people | also | few-conti-neg-pst |
| ‘People who escaped were not few either.’ | |||
| (BCCWJ) | |||
Clause (16) shows the predicator realized by an adjective sukuna-ku-naka-tta with morphemes indicating negation and past tense (-naka-tta). In this way, the adjective undergoes an inflectional change for continuity, changing from its original form sukunai to sukuna-ku to get itself prepared for the following added morphemes.
It is seen from the above examples that the predicators in Japanese declaratives can be realized by verbs, copula, or adjectives, all of them able to incorporate morphological potentials. This heavy dependence on morphological changes in declarative shows a huge difference from Chinese since the latter lacks morphological features.
3.2.3 Delicacy in the exclamative Mood
In the mood network constructed by He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 6), the exclamative Mood includes five sub-categories, which are based on the same categorization as Fawcett.[12] They are the exclamation at the thing, at the quality of the thing, at the quantity of the thing, at the quality of the event, and at the quantity of the event. The five categories are all found in the Chinese and Japanese mood type systems.
3.2.4 Linguistic resources in the exclamative Mood
With the contrast of the linguistic resources in Chinese and Japanese exclamatives, three similarities and one difference are found. The similarities are the use of Mood particles, qualitative groups, and the altering of word order for realization. And one difference in the use of grammatical patterns is found: while Chinese relies highly on the use of “predicator + complement” structure, Japanese exclamation tends to be expressed in the pattern of “adjunct + predicator”.
3.2.4.1 Similarity in using Mood particles
Chinese and Japanese, both languages with Mood particles, depend on the use of these particles for marking the exclamative function (Li 2008). As seen from the following cases, the use of Mood particles is an important way of realization in both languages:
| duo | mei | de | shui | a! |
| how. much | beautiful | srtmark | water | mp |
| ‘How beautiful the water is!’ | ||||
| (BCC) | ||||
| nante | koto | da | yo! |
| what | thing | cop | mp |
| ‘What a thing!’ | |||
| (BCCWJ) | |||
The Mood particles a and yo located at the end of the clauses mark the strong sense of exclamation. They are the essential resources marking the exclamatives both in Chinese and Japanese (Li 2008).
3.2.4.2 Similarity in using qualitative groups
In the exclamation at the quality of things, both Chinese and Japanese refer to the qualitative group, which has an apex and modifiers, for realization. The following example shows the details:
| wen-qilai | ke | zhen | xiang | a! |
| smell-srtmark | emphmark | very | good | mp! |
| ‘It smells so fragrant!’ | ||||
| (BCC) | ||||
Clause (19) shows the exclamation that is realized by the qualitative group zhen xiang (‘so fragrant’), with zhen (‘so’) as emphasizing modifier and xiang (‘fragrant’) as the apex. The use of degree words to mark exclamation is commonly found in many languages (Castroviejo 2006; Li 2008). The Mood particle a at the end helps enhance the emotion expressed in the clause.
A similar method is found in Japanese:
| konnani | kantan, | chou | oishii! |
| this. much | easy | very | delicious |
| ‘So easy and very delicious!’ | |||
| (BCCWJ) | |||
In this clause, the Japanese qualitative group chou oishii (‘very delicious’) (a similar pattern of emphasizing modifier chou plus the apex oishii) functions for the realization of exclamation. It shows a similar pattern of the qualitative group in Chinese.
3.2.4.3 Similarity in using quantitative groups
In the exclamation at the quantity of things, Chinese and Japanese both can use the quantitative group that is composed of an amount and adjustors. The following examples show how quantitative groups are used in these exclamative clauses:
| cai | 3 | sui | bu-dao! |
| emphmark | three | year | not-reach |
| ‘He is even not 3 years old!’ | |||
| (BCC) | |||
In clause (21), cai serves as the adjustor for 3 in the quantitative group if seen from a hypotactic perspective. This pattern, with the degree word cai, marks the “fewness” of the quantity with the exclamative meaning.
Similarly, the mou in clause (22) is the adjustor for 9 in the Japanese clause with the exclamation at the quantity of things:
| mou | 9 | sai | nan | desu. |
| already | nine | year | ehpm | cop (hon) |
| ‘He is already nine years old.’ | ||||
| (BCCWJ) | ||||
The similar pattern of the quantitative groups and their usages in Chinese and Japanese may be related to the function of exclamative which carries and expresses strong emotions. The similar usage in languages may be the result of the similarity in patterns of sensing and expressing emotions.
3.2.4.4 Similarity in altering word order
The altering of basic word order is a typical method to express the Chinese exclamation (Gao 1986 [1948]). Both Chinese and Japanese can alter the basic word order to initiate the clause with the element of exclamation, as the altered element is marked as the focus. Since both languages are tolerant of altering word order, which usually casts no influence on the value of the proposition, such alternation is commonly applied when expressing exclamation.
| zhen | shibai | a | wo | … |
| really | failed | mp | I | |
| ‘I’m so disappointing …’ | ||||
| (BCC) | ||||
As shown in clause (23), the basic order Subject ˆ Predicator ˆ Complement is altered as Predicator ˆ Subject with wo (‘I’), the subject, located at the end of the clause. In this sense, the initial element zhen shibai becomes the focus of the clause, thus strengthening the exclamation in it.
The similar case is also applicable in Japanese:
| erai | na, | omae! |
| great | mp | you |
| ‘You’re so great!’ | ||
| (BCCWJ) | ||
The initial element in clause (24) erai is the predicator of the clause. It now becomes the focus of the clause which though on usual occasions is located after the subject. This alternation serves to strengthen the degree of exclamation in the clause.
3.2.4.5 Differences in the use of structural patterns
In the realization of exclamative, Chinese and Japanese differ in the adoption of structural patterns when they perform the same function: while Chinese prefers a “predicator + predicator extension”[13] structure in exclamation, Japanese is expressed in the pattern of “adjunct + predicator”.
| wang | chi-de | tebie | duo. | |
| Wang | eat-srtmark | very | much | |
| ‘Wang Xing eats very much.’ | ||||
| (BCC) | ||||
| konnani | chi | ga, | konnani | chi | ga | deru. |
| this. much | blood | sbjmark | this. much | blood | sbjmark | come. out |
| ‘The bleeding is so severe.’ | ||||||
| (BCCWJ) | ||||||
The difference in structural patterns in Chinese and Japanese is as indicated by clauses (25) and (26). Clause (25) is a Chinese exclamative clause that shows the exclamation at the quantity of the event. The clause has its predicator chi (‘eat’) located in front of the predicator extension tebie duo (‘very much’), forming the “predicator + predicator extension” structure which includes the event of exclamation chi (‘eat’), and the quantity of the event tebie duo (‘very much’). Yet for expressing similar exclamation, Japanese adopts the structure “adjunct + predicator” that starts from the adjunct konnani, the element for emphasizing the quantity of the event, and ends with the predicator deru (‘come out’) that realizes the event.
3.3 Interrogative
Interrogative Mood functions to ask for information which is further divided into the information of yes or no, and that of new contents. Interrogative Mood contains three basic types: the polarity seeker, the new content seeker, and the choice of content. In this section, we will contrast the delicacy in Chinese and Japanese interrogative Mood and the linguistic resources.
3.3.1 Delicacy in the interrogative Mood
Delicacy in Chinese and Japanese interrogative Mood shows similarities in most categories: the positive and negative polarity seekers, and new content seekers for the subject, predicator, complement, and adjunct. Differences are found in terms of the unbiased polarity seeker and the choice of content.
3.3.1.1 Unbiased polarity seeker prominent in Chinese
The unbiased polarity seeker is formed in the neutral aspect without giving weight to either polarity (Halliday and McDonald 2004: 334). While Chinese Mood reserves a prominent status for the unbiased polarity seeker which is frequently used among the sub-types of the interrogative Mood, this kind of seeker appears only in the embedded clause for Japanese.
| wo | shi | bu-shi | xiang | tai-duo | le | … |
| I | is | neg-is | think | too-much | mp | |
| ‘Am I thinking too much or not …?’ | ||||||
| (BCC) | ||||||
Clause (27) is a Chinese unbiased polarity seeker that is realized by the Predicator–Negator–Predicator structure (shi bu shi in this case). This is frequently used in Chinese interrogative of polarity, which demonstrates its prominent status in the mood system. The polarity seeker featuring unbiasedness indicates that the clause does not presume a positive or negative standpoint in the beginning. The answer to this kind can be either positive or negative.
The unbiased polarity seeker is also found in Japanese, though only in embedded clauses:
| tokkyo | shutoku | no | youken | o | mitashi-te-iru |
| patenting | get | srtmark | requirement | objmark | meet-conti-prog |
| ka | dou | ka | o | handan-sare-masu | |
| q | how | q | objmark | judge-pass-hon | |
| ‘It will be determined if you meet the requirements for patenting.’ | |||||
| (BCCWJ) | |||||
As shown in clause (28), ka dou ka, the structure that indicates an unbiased polarity seeker, appears only in the embedded clause which serves as the complement of the predicator handan-sare-masu. This is how the unbiased polarity seeker exists in the Japanese mood system, which indicates that it cannot function as an independent category in the mood system.
3.3.1.2 Choice of content prominent in Chinese
It is frequently used in Chinese interrogative Mood to seek choices between two or more options. The choices can be located in any grammatical slots: the subject, predicator, complement, or adjunct.
| chi | zhong-can | haishi | xi-can | ne? |
| eat | Chinese-dish | or | Western-dish | mp |
| ‘Should I eat a Chinese dish or a Western dish?’ | ||||
| (BCC) | ||||
As shown in the above clause, the two options zhong-can (‘Chinese dish’) and xi-can (‘Western dish’) are provided to the addressee for choice. This is frequently used in Chinese interrogative Mood, showing its prominent status in the mood type system.
While for Japanese, similar cases are possible only for a limited number of patterns:
| kyou | no | iwashi | wa | “kabayaki” | ka |
| today | srtmark | sardine | topmark | roast. fish | q |
| “biza-fu” | ka | docchi | ga | ii? | |
| pizza-style | q | which | sbjmark | good | |
| ‘Today, which is better to make the dish of sardine, roast, or pizza-style?’ | |||||
| (BCCWJ) | |||||
The common pattern for realizing the choice of content in Japanese is listed above: two or more options plus docchi ga ii, the structure meaning ‘which is better’. Such patterns are only possible for seeking choices made for nominal groups.
3.3.2 Linguistic resources in the interrogative Mood
This section focuses on the similarities and differences found in the linguistic resources that realize Chinese and Japanese interrogative Mood. Through contrast, we found that both Chinese and Japanese interrogatives use question markers. They also show the similarity in the lack of altering word order in terms of the realization, which is different from many Indo-European languages. Instead, both Chinese and Japanese interrogatives refer to the use of question markers for realization, though with minor differences in usages.
3.3.2.1 Similarity in the usage of question markers
The polarity seekers of both Chinese and Japanese interrogative Mood do not refer to the change of word order for realization, as is the case in English. Instead, by adding a question marker, this type of interrogative is realized without other changes in language form from their corresponding declarative structure.
| ni | shenbian | you | zhe-xie | pengyou | ma? |
| you | surrounding | have | this-pl | friend | q |
| ‘Do you have these friends around you?’ | |||||
| (BCC) | |||||
| hontou | ni | tome-te-ta | no | ka. |
| truth | advmark | stop-conti-pst | mp | q |
| ‘Did you really stop?’ | ||||
| (BCCWJ) | ||||
As shown in the two clauses above, the question marker ma in Chinese and ka in Japanese mark the interrogative Mood. The basic word order remains the same with the corresponding declarative forms respectively.
As for the new contents seekers, the locations of the interrogative words remain in the same the slots as in the declarative structures that they seek: this is the case for both Chinese and Japanese new content seekers.
| zhongwu | chi | shenme? |
| noon | eat | what |
| ‘What do you want for lunch?’ | ||
| (BCC) | ||
In clause (33), the element seeking for the new content shenme (‘what’) is located after the predicator chi (‘eat’), which means it seeks for the complement in this clause. To answer the question, the structure goes like zhongwu chi mifan (‘I want rice for lunch.’), whose complement mifan (‘rice’) occupies the same slot in the declarative with the content seeker shenme (‘what’) in the interrogative.
The similar usages of the in-situ question words are also found in Japanese:
| nani | ya-tte-ru | no? |
| what | do-conti-prog | mp |
| ‘What are you doing?’ | ||
| (DCLRTCBR) | ||
Clause (34) shows that nani (‘what’), the question word that serves as the complement of the predicator yatteru (‘do’), is located at the slot where the content being sought occupies in its declarative answer.
3.3.2.2 Differences in multi-functionality
Though both Chinese and Japanese interrogatives rely on question markers for realization, their usages differ in grammatical coverage. For Japanese, question marker ka and its variations (kai, no, etc.) appear with grammaticality in almost all types of interrogatives, be it seekers of polarity or new contents. This indicates its stable function in marking the interrogative. However, it is not the case for the Chinese interrogative where, on certain occasions, it refuses question markers as ungrammaticality, or it changes the original meaning if the question marker is added.
| ni | mingtian | jidian | shangban? |
| you | tomorrow | when | work |
| ‘When do you go to work tomorrow?’ | |||
| (BCC) | |||
In clause (35), the Chinese interrogative seeking new content refuses the existence of the question marker ma which will deplete the clause of its grammaticality. If ma is added to the end of the clause, the meaning is then changed to “Are you going to work at some time tomorrow?”.
3.4 Imperative
Imperative Mood aims to illicit exchanges of goods-&-services that involve the extent of compulsoriness and the different status between the parties of the exchanges for further categorization. In this section, we will elaborate on the delicacy in Chinese and Japanese imperative Mood and the linguistic resources from the perspective of cross-linguistic features.
3.4.1 Delicacy in the imperative Mood
Based on He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 6), the network concerning imperative Mood shows a pattern from general to specific as it moves from left to right. This is the case for both Chinese and Japanese imperatives, both of which have six categories: directive, request, ruling, hope, suggestion (including two sub-types, proposal and recommendation), and the statement of wish.
Two indicators are involved in terms of the functional nuances of the above categories: the extent of compulsoriness and the different status between the parties of the exchanges. Among the six categories, directive, request, and ruling are usually embedded with a high level of compulsoriness while the rest are with a relatively low level. As regards the status between the parties of the exchanges, the hierarchy between the parties affects the choices of imperatives. In the status that involves strong power relations between the parties, such imperatives as directive and ruling usually rise to the occasion. Some Mood types are free from the influence of power relations, such as hope and the statement of wish.
3.4.2 Linguistic resources in the imperative Mood
By contrasting the linguistic resources used in Chinese and Japanese imperatives, we found two similarities and two differences. The two languages both use short forms for directive and formulaic expressions for the statement of wish; differences refer to the divergence in the dependence of realization: while Chinese relies heavily on the use of various vocabularies, Japanese takes an inflectional way, mostly resorting to the morphological changes.
3.4.2.1 Similarity in the shortness of directive
One of the similarities particularly apparent is the clause length of the directive which is short on any occasion of both Chinese and Japanese.
| gei | wo | zuo-xia! |
| give | I | sit-down |
| ‘Sit down!’ | ||
| (BCC) | ||
| oi | sake | o | kure. |
| hey | wine | objmark | give (imp) |
| ‘Hey, give me the wine.’ | |||
| (BCCWJ) | |||
As indicated by the two clauses above, the length of the directive is usually short, which contains only a limited amount of information. This will ensure that the addressee catches the focus of the directive, namely the action that the speaker wants to be done, without much distraction from other information. It applies both to Chinese and Japanese because the function of the directive is the same even across languages.
3.4.2.2 Similarity in the use of formulaic expressions for the statement of wish
Another similar point that shows consistency across languages is the use of formulaic expressions to realize the statement of wish. In both languages, the statement of wish tends to rely on formulaic expressions. These expressions are usually static and limited in usage, some of them merely for this type of Mood.
| zhu | ni | shengri | kuaile! |
| wish | you | birthday | happy |
| ‘Happy birthday to you!’ | |||
| (BCC) | |||
Clause (38) uses the zhu (‘wish’) structure in Chinese which is particularly important for the realization of the statement of wish, for the latter half of the clause may be replaced by any content to be wished for. Therefore, such a structure is frequently used in the statement of wish and becomes static in usage.
The case is similar to the Japanese statement of wish:
| akemashi-te | omedetou | gozaimasu |
| new. year-conti | congratulation | cop (hon) |
| ‘Happy New Year!’ | ||
| (BCCWJ) | ||
Japanese statement of wish also tends to use formulaic expressions, such as the omedetou (‘congratulation’) in clause (39) with the content to be congratulated at its front, indicating an exchange of service (‘wish you to be happy’).
3.4.2.3 Dependence on vocabularies for Chinese
One of the most prominent differences in the realization of imperatives for Chinese and Japanese lies in the dependence on linguistic resources. While Chinese relies more on the use of vocabularies, or lexical resources, Japanese takes morphological changes as the counterpart.
Based on He et al. (Forthcoming: Ch. 7), the typical lexical resources for each sub-type of imperative Mood are listed in Table 1.
Lexical resources used in the Chinese imperative.
| Imperative types | Lexical resources |
|---|---|
| Directive | Emphasizing words (gei wo [‘give me’]) |
| Request | Mood particles (ba, ya, la) |
| Ruling | “Let” word (rang [‘let’]) |
| Hope | Mood particles (ba, ya, la) and pleasing words (qing [‘please’], qiuqiu [‘beg’]) |
| Suggestion | Mood particles (ba, ya, la) and predicators (jianyi [‘suggest’], shishi [‘try’]) |
| Statement of wish | – |
Except for the statement of wish that mostly uses formulaic expressions, other sub-types all rely heavily on the use of Mood particles and some predicators for realization. Sometimes, extra uses of lexical resources are applied to enhance the tension of Mood, which is briefly supported by the following example:
| ni | gei | wo | renzhu. |
| you | give | I | tolerate |
| ‘You, tolerate it.’ | |||
| (BCC) | |||
The clause adds gei wo (‘give me’) to strengthen the tension, which increases its level of compulsoriness. Such phenomena are usually realized by lexical resources in Chinese.
3.4.2.4 Dependence on morphological changes for Japanese
In contrast to the Chinese imperative that uses lexical resources for realization, Japanese imperatives rely heavily on morphological changes. Basically, morphological changes for realization can be found for each sub-type of the imperatives (Table 2).
Morphological changes used in the Japanese imperative.
| Imperative types | Morphological changes |
|---|---|
| Directive | The predicator suffix changed into the e series (e.g. ka-ku → ka-ke); predicator suffix changed into shiro (e.g. bankyou-suru → bankyou-shiro); addition of the suffix na (e.g. tabe-ru → tabe-ru-na) |
| Request | The predicator suffix changed into that of the te form (e.g. ka-ku → kai-te) |
| Ruling | Addition of the suffix tamae (e.g. tabe-ru → taberi-tamae) and nasai (e.g. tabe-ru → taberi-nasai) |
| Hope | The predicator suffix changed into that of the tai form (e.g. ka-ku → kaki-tai) and te-hoshi form (e.g. tabe-ru → tabe-te-hoshi) |
| Suggestion | The predicator suffix changed into that of you form (e.g. ka-ku → ka-kou) |
| Statement of wish | – |
Except for the statement of wish, other sub-types all refer to the use of morphological changes for realization, which demonstrates the inflectional feature of the language. The following example will offer a brief illustration:
| hitotsu | no | episoudo | o | hasama-se-te-itadaki-tai |
| one | srtmark | story | objmark | insert-causa-conti-ben (hon)-want |
| ‘Please let me insert a piece of the story.’ | ||||
| (BCCWJ) | ||||
As shown by the predicator hasama-se-te-itadaki-tai in clause (41), many grammatical elements, including that marks the imperative, are encoded into the verb whose root is hasama (‘insert’). The element -tai, which marks the imperative, expresses “the speaker’s intention to do something, which prompts the addressee into the exchange of goods-&-services” (Teruya 2017: 226). Besides this, the morphemes of causative -se, beneficial -itadaki (in its honorific form) are also encoded into the verb. It is common in Japanese to incorporate morphemes of grammatical elements to the verbs, which usually results in a long predicator with heavily-loaded inflectional information.
4 Discussion
As we contrast the delicacy and realizations of the Chinese and Japanese mood type systems, the similarities and differences are clearly shown in both the functions and linguistic resources of the two languages. Such findings can be attributed to the functional and typological motivations which are discussed in the following sections.
4.1 Functional prominence
Both Chinese and Japanese are languages with strong functional prominence in terms of mood systems as elaborated in the last sections. This explains most of the similarities found in the delicacy of the Chinese and Japanese mood type systems and part of the differences.
In the sub-categories of the declarative (including exclamative), interrogative, and imperative, Chinese and Japanese demonstrate similar language functions in several key areas. In some of the categories that are divided in the most detail, such as the sub-types of imperative, they also show similarities not only in the categorizations themselves but also in their functional meanings. This is a clear demonstration of the cross-linguistic features of Mood that show similar prominence in different languages because the strong characteristics of Mood are influenced by the basic shared patterns of interpersonal communication across cultures.
The functional prominence also relates to the differences found in the delicacy of the mood type systems, such as the unbiased polarity seeker and the choice of content in Chinese interrogative Mood. Japanese interrogative Mood allocates no independent status for such sub-types, which further results in the decrease of their usage frequency. In other words, the functions of these types are not so strongly performed in Japanese as they are in Chinese. Following a similar logic, the more complex delicacy of Chinese interrogative Mood indicates its stronger functional prominence.
What’s more, functional prominence is found to correlate with the complexity of linguistic resources used to realize such functions. In some of the Mood types that express the most static and simple functions, such as the straight exclamative, directive, and the statement of wish, similar linguistic resources are used in both languages for each Mood type, such as the qualitative and quantitative groups for the exclamative, shortness of directive clause length, and the formulaic expressions for the statement of wish. Such concordance between the functional prominence and their respective linguistic resources is attributed to the stability and simplicity of these language phenomena. Whenever and wherever they are needed, they rise to the occasion without variations or alternations, becoming well-used due to the economy of language. As a result, such functions become prominent but simple, and the language forms thereby become stable and invariant.
4.2 Typological prominence
Typological prominences are shown in the contrast of the Mood features of the two languages. From the typological perspective, certain features found in the language forms that realize the Mood functions are explained by their close relation with linguistic typological prominence.
Though Chinese and Japanese are different in word order, which is the most studied issue in language typology, they demonstrate the same relationship between the change of word order and the use of question markers in the discussion of Mood. There is concordance between the invariance of word order when the clause changes from the declarative to the interrogative, and the use of question markers (Greenberg 1963: 83). In other words, both Chinese and Japanese do not rely on the change of word order to realize interrogative Mood, which typologically indicates that they both have question markers at the end of the clause. This is a basic feature of several East Asian languages (Liu 2017) that is in sharp contrast to such Indo-European languages as English.
Aside from the concordance found above, Chinese and Japanese display different morphologies in the realization of Mood. While Chinese, morphologically speaking, is a typical isolated language (Whaley 1997: 131) which shows heavy dependence on individual words with few inflections, Japanese shows strong features of inflectional and agglutinative languages (Lieber 2009: 133), namely the morphological changes at the end of words.
Due to their morphological differences, Chinese and Japanese rely on different strategies for realizing Mood, namely lexical resources, and morphological changes respectively. Some functional features that tend to be realized by lexical choices in Chinese tend to be realized by morphological changes in Japanese. These are the cases for the declarative and imperative Mood.
A complex system of morphological changes for the predicators is typical of Japanese Mood. Such inflectional changes apply not only to verbs, the basic elements to realize predictors, but also to copula and the i-adjectives. This generality of inflectional changes in Japanese is a feature of morphological typology because similar cases are also found in the imperative Mood. While Chinese imperative clauses generally resort to lexical resources, a variety of sub-types of the Japanese imperative are realized by morphological changes on verbs, copula, adjectives, and other elements that realize the predicators. The differences in the realization of Mood in Chinese and Japanese find their motivations in the typological prominence.
5 Conclusion
This paper contrasted the Chinese and Japanese mood type systems from the Systemic Functional perspective. After reviewing the previous studies of Chinese and Japanese Mood, the paper approached the issue from the functional viewpoint using contrastive analysis. By contrasting the delicacy and linguistic resources utilized in the declarative, interrogative, and imperative in Chinese and Japanese, it found similarities and differences in the mood type systems in the languages. The Chinese and Japanese mood systems basically show a similar pattern of delicacy. The similarities in linguistic realizations include the use of Mood particles, qualitative groups, quantitative groups, question markers, formulaic expressions, and some similar clause features; the two languages differ in the use of structural patterns, the multi-functionalities in certain Mood types, and the dependence of linguistic resources. These findings are further related to the motivations of the functional and typological prominence.
Both Chinese and Japanese are languages with strong functional prominence, which is also clearly reflected in the description of Mood functions and the realizations. This thus relates the prominence of the language forms with the language functions. In a further step, the prominence in these areas may find the motivations in the social interactional patterns of the two nations because interpersonal communication plays an important role in both Chinese and Japanese societies.
The typological features of the two languages are demonstrated in the Mood functions and the linguistic resources used to realize them, proving that the features of Mood are related to the general typological concern. In other words, the Mood functions and the linguistic resources used to realize Mood can also be addressed from a more general typological angle.
This paper leaves some issues for future discussions, such as the metaphorical realization of Mood types and the relationship between the congruent and the metaphorical. Also, this paper does not address the other part of the mood system, the mood force system, which will be discussed in another paper.
Abbreviations
- advmark
-
adverb mark
- allmark
-
allative marker
- aux
-
auxiliary
- ben
-
benefactive
- capamod
-
capability modality
- causa
-
causative
- conc
-
concessive
- confmod
-
confirmation modality
- conti
-
continuer
- cop
-
copula
- destmark
-
destination marker
- emph
-
emphasis
- genmark
-
genitive marker
- hon
-
honorification
- impmark
-
imperative mark
- inclmod
-
inclination modality
- infermod
-
inference modality
- modfmark
-
modifier marker
- mp
-
Mood particle
- neg
-
negative
- negmod
-
negative modality
- nmlz
-
nominalizer
- objmark
-
objective marker
- obligmod
-
obligation modality
- ord
-
ordinal
- pass
-
passive
- pfv
-
perfective
- pst
-
past
- quotmark
-
quotation marker
- sbjmark
-
subject marker
- strmakrk
-
structural marker
- supp
-
suppositional
- topmark
-
topic marker
- wri
-
written form
Funding source: Major Program of National Social Science Fund of China
Award Identifier / Grant number: 19ZDA319
-
Research funding: This work was supported by the Major Program of National Social Science Fund of China (grant number 19ZDA319).
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