Chapter Two introduces the semantic meanings and developments of the Chinese modal verb hui, in which we not only discuss the meanings and developments of hui, but also review four empirical studies of the modal verb hui in first language acquisition.
In Chapter Three, four sections are included: the subjects, methods and materials,
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procedure, and results of the present study. Chapter Four discusses the major findings of hui. In Chapter Five, a conclusion and limitations of the present study are reported.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
In this chapter, both theoretical and empirical studies of the Chinese modal hui are reviewed. Section 2.1 introduces the various meanings of the modal hui in Chinese, and Section 2.2 discusses the emerging sequence of hui regarding its meanings, semantic
map, and features. Section 2.3 presents four empirical studies of modal verbs in English and in Chinese. Finally, a summary of this chapter is provided in Section 2.4.
2.1 Meanings of the Chinese Modal Hui
Some researchers have argued that the Chinese modal hui can have different meanings (cf. Mei 1999, Yang 2001, Hsieh 2006). For example, both Yang (2001) and Hsieh (2006) claim that hui can be used to express permission, obligation, possibility, etc. From the previous research (Guo 1981, Krifka et al. 1995, Chou 1998, Huang 1999, Wu 2009, Fan 2014), we can also see that hui exhibits many different meanings, which can be further categorized into two types: main meanings and sub-meanings. Krifka et al. (1995), and Wu (2009), for instance, argue that habitual activities and natural laws can be grouped into a big category, which refers to any events or circumstances that are factual or actual on earth. Therefore, the present study only investigates the five meanings of hui.
This is because they can be used to cover many sub-meanings and have been
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addressed in a great number of studies (Guo 1995, Huang 1999, Yang 2001, Wu 2009, Fan 2012, Wang 2014) as well. Type 1 refers to the dynamic hui. Types 2 and 3 refer to the deontic hui and the epistemic hui. Finally, Types 4 and 5 are about the generic hui and the futurity hui.
Type 1. The dynamic hui
The dynamic hui can be used to describe the physical or psychological ability of a subject (i.e., a human or an animal) to do things (c.f. Li & Thompson 1981, Huang 1999,
Chang 2001, Hsieh 2006, Fan 2012), as can be seen in Examples (1) and (2).
(1) Xiaowang hui bi zhuo yanjing kai che.
Xiaowang HUI close ASP eyes drive car
‘Xiaowang can drive a car with his eyes closed.’ (Fan 2012:222) (2) Ta hui chang haoduo minnanyu gequ.
he HUI sing many Taiwanese song
‘He can sing many Taiwanese songs.’ (Hsieh 2006:51)
In (1), the speaker uses hui to indicate a situation that the subject Xiaoming has a physical ability to drive a car with his eyes closed. In (2), the speaker produces a sentence with hui to describe a state that the subject ta ‘he’ has a physiological ability to sing many Taiwanese songs. The difference between the physical and physiological hui is that the former one relates to a person’s manipulation of concrete objects, but the
latter one associates to a person’s internal state (Hsieh 2006, Fan 2012).
Moreover, in previous literature, the dynamic hui has been further divided into
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sub-meanings like learned ability or good-quality ability (Tang 2000, Chang 2001, Fan
2012), as can be seen below.
(3) Ren hui shuo hua.
people HUI speak language
‘People can speak. / People know how to speak.’ (Chang 2001:9)
(4) Zhe xifu hui shuohua.
this daughter-in-law HUI speak
‘This daughter-in-law is quite outspoken.’ (Fan 2012:207)
In (3), the speaker uses the modal hui to express that the subjects (i.e., people) have an ability to speak, and which ability should be learned or acquired individually (Chang 2001). In (4), the speaker uses hui to convey that the subject (i.e., the daughter-in-law) knows what to say to different addressees on different occasions. Each of these sub-meanings is related to the subject’s ability; therefore, we use the term ‘dynamic’ to cover these sub-meanings of hui in the present study.
Type 2. The deontic hui
Guo (1995), Hsieh (2006), and Wu (2009) argue that the deontic hui can be used in a situation where a speaker gives a promise, threat or permission to the listener, and the both (i.e., the morally responsible agents) should take the responsibility and duty of the events, as shown in (5) and (6), both taken from Wu (2009:36):
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In (5), the subject women ‘we’ is making a promise that they will accept something like
the result humbly. On this occasion, the speaker commits himself and his mates to ensure that this event will take place. On the contrary, in (6), the speaker uses the modal hui to threaten the listener that the subject ta ‘he’ will kill the object (i.e., the listener)
ni ‘you’. Although, this hui can be further classified into sub-meanings such as
imperative or desiderative in Wu’s (1996) study. However, these sub-meanings are associated with the person’s duty or responsibility of doing something, and we use the
‘deontic hui’ as one of the five meanings in the present study.
Type 3. The epistemic hui
Lin & Tang (1991), Chou (1998), and Wang (2014) argue that this type of hui can be used to denote a speaker’s individual prediction1 , comment, judgment or guess toward propositions, which may or may not happen eventually. Sentence (7) is an
example that illustrates the modal hui can be used to give a comment on something:
1 Prediction refers to a speaker’s guess or assumption, but it may not happen eventually (Palmer 1990).
(i) Lisi dengyixia hui guoqu zhao ni.
Lisi later HUI go search you
‘Lisi will go to see you later.’ (Chang 2001:70)
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(7) Ta chi le qingjiao jiu hui bian luse le.
it eat PFV green.pepper just HUI become green PFV
‘After eating green pepper, it will become green.’ (Wang 2014:57)
In (7), the speaker is telling the listener that if the frog eats the green pepper it will become green. In this case, he is commenting on the event by his own judgement, but the event may not happen in the end.
As pointed out by Guo (1981) and Chang (2001), the epistemic hui also can have a sub-meaning like contrary-to-expectation, which usually co-occurs with an adverb or
a negator, contrasting to the previous propositions (Chang 2001), as in (8):
(8) Ta hui bu gaoxing de.
Ta HUI not happy DE
‘He will be unhappy.’ (Chang 2001:89)
In (8), the speaker uses the epistemic hui and the negator bu ‘no’ to disagree with someone’s prediction that he will be happy. Though this type of hui has many sub-meanings, the term epistemic is most widely used in previous studies (Chang 2001, Wang 2014). Therefore, we use the ‘epistemic hui’ to cover all the sub-meanings related to people’s personal judgement prediction, comment, judgment or guess.
Type 4. The generic hui
Krifka et al. (1995), Hsieh (2006), and Yang (2007) state the generic hui can be used to describe entities or situations which are natural and factual in the real world.
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According to Wu (1996), Huang (1999), Zhang (2000), Chang (2001), Fan (2012) this type of hui can be further classified into three sub-meanings.
Chang (2001) indicates that the natural law hui is used to state a condition, which
is always true in the world, as in (9).
(9) Ren hui si.
people HUI die
‘People will die.’ (Chang 2001:77)
Fan (2012) proposes that the habitual hui is used to describe a habit of a person
to do something, as in (10).
(10) Xiaowang yi wendao yanwei jiu hui dapenti.
Xiaowang one smell smoke just HUI sneeze
‘Xiaowang will sneeze when he smells the smoke.’ (Fan 2012:202)
Zhang (2000) denotes that the general-characteristics hui refers to a condition
that usually happens, as in (11).
(11) Muji hui sheng dan.
hen HUI lay egg
‘Hens will lay eggs.’ (Zhang 2000:17)
In (9), the speaker explains a natural statement to the listener that the entity (i.e., ren
‘people’) will eventually die because it is impossible to find a person that will not die in the universe. In (10), similarly, the speaker uses hui to tell the listener that the person (i.e., Xiaowang) will sneeze once he smells the smoke, which has been his habitual reaction. As for (11), the speaker describes a statement to the listener that hens in
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general lay eggs. Apparently, these three sub-meanings all consist of factual or common features in the real world; therefore, we will use the term ‘generic’ to cover these meanings in the present study.
Type 5. The futurity hui
This type of hui can be used to denote events which are going to happen in the
future according to schedules, plans, or forecasts (Yang 2007, Chang 2008). It is obvious that the futurity hui is similar to the epistemic hui to some degrees since they are both related to things that have not happened. However, they are not identical in that the former is related to existing schedules, plans or weather reports, but the latter is not (Fan 2012). Sentences below are examples that show hui can be used to denote
the events according to the forecast and a person’s schedule, respectively:
(12) Taifeng jinwan hui denglu.
typhoon tonight HUI arrive
‘The typhoon is arriving tonight.’ (Yang 2007:111) (13) Zhuozi mingtian hui dao.
table tomorrow HUI arrive
‘It should be the case that the table will arrive tomorrow.’ (Chang 2008:11)
In (12), the speaker says that the typhoon will be arriving by predicting that this event is going to take place according to the weather forecast he has heard. In (13), similarly, the speaker tells the listener that someone will be delivering the table based on his schedule. In the present study, we conduct the term ‘futurity’ to cover these
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meanings of hui since they are all about events that can be predicted according to some existing evidence or plans.
To sum up, the Chinese modal hui has many different sub-meanings discussed in previous studies. However, since these sub-meanings can be covered by the five main meanings. For instance, dynamic hui can be used to cover physical, physiological,
learned, and good-quality ability. Deontic hui includes the notion of threat, promise, obligation, permission etc. Epistemic hui is used to indicate individual’s prediction, judgement, comment or guess. Generic hui involves the concept of natural law, habitual characteristics, and generic-characteristics. Futurity hui covers the scheduled, planned or forecasted events. Therefore, we fundamentally use these five main meanings to investigate children’s acquisition of the Chinese modal hui.
2.2 Historical Emerging Sequence of the Chinese Modal Hui
The emerging sequence of the Chinese modal hui has become a controversial topic for a long time. For example, Chang (2001), Wu (2009), and Fan (2012) investigate it with different approaches such as Diachronic Sequence, Semantic Map, and Featural Derivation. Therefore, in this section, we review these three approaches to the Chinese modal hui. In Section 2.2.1, the Diachronic Sequence of the Chinese modal hui will be presented. Section 2.2.2 reports the Semantic Map of the Chinese modal hui. Finally, the Featural Derivation of hui will be discussed in Section 2.2.3.
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2.2.1 The Diachronic Sequence of the Chinese Modal Hui
Regards to the analysis of modal verb hui from the semantic perspective, Zhang (2000), Liu (2002), Wu (2009), and Fan (2012) argue that the prototype of hui was rooted from a verbal form to the various modal meanings. Especially, Liu (2002)
scrutinizes 10 classical pieces of Chinese literature and points out that hui is used as a verb in the medieval time. For example, it can mean ‘gather’ as in (14) and ‘understand’
as in (15) in the literature SHISHOUXINYU and ZUTANGJI in the Tang Dynasty. In both sentences, the morpheme hui does not have any modal usage, and they perform as
a main verb instead (Liu 2002):
(14) Hui ji Mingli ye.
HUI together Mingli PAR
‘People gathered the works of the Mingli.’ (Chang 1993: Pinzao 53/88) (15) wo hui Chan hui dao.
I HUI Dharma HUI doctrine
‘You understand the Dharma and doctrines’ (Shi 1996:365)
In (14), the verb hui has a meaning of ‘gathering something’. Likewise, in (15), it not only shows the same usage, but also has a meaning of ‘understanding something’ (Liu 2002). It was not until the Wu Dai Dynasty that the meanings of hui have been found in different forms of Chinese literature. For instance, the dynamic hui and the deontic hui have been found in DUNHUANG BIAN WEN, as can be seen below:
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(16) Hui zhi juan.
HUI weave silk
‘I can weave silks.’ (Wu 1996:1260) (17) Xiaohan hui dangcheng yulu.
Strong man HUI endure rain.water
‘A strong man must can overcome any frustrations.’ (Wu 1996:461)
In (16), the speaker used the meaning of the dynamic hui to describe that the subject
has an ability of weaving silks. In (17), the deontic hui can be used to denote a condition that the strong man has the responsibility to overcome anything; therefore, it has the meaning of ‘someone must can do something’ (Liu 2002).
With regard to other meanings, Liu (2002) states that the meaning of the epistemic hui can be found in the literature in the Song Dynasty, and it has been widely used in
the ZHUZIYULEI, as can be seen below:
(18) You ge ding shu, yongbu hui cha.
have CLA fixed number never HUI deviate
‘The dates of the calendar are fixed, so they will never deviate.’
(Yang 2001:2213)
In (18), people doubted about the accuracy of the calendar; therefore, Zhuzi (i.e., the speaker) used the meaning of epistemic to comment that the dates of the calendar are fixed so that we do not have to worry about it. However, Liu (2002) does not mention any generic hui or futurity hui in her study. Therefore, the development of hui can be ordered as: verb > dynamic > deontic > epistemic according to Liu’s (2002) study.
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2.2.2 The Semantic Map of the Chinese Modal Hui
A semantic map can be used to depict the development of a word or morpheme from the prototype to its expanded meanings by using lines, graphs, arrows, and other figures (Traugott 1989, Bybee 1994, Haspelmath 2003). Take the English modal can for instance, Bybee (1994) argues that the prototype of it was rooted from the sense of
personal ability to the necessity and possibility. On the contrary, take the Chinese modal for example, Fan (2012) analyzes the modal hui by the concept of the Semantic Map, as can be seen in Figure 2-1:
physical Ability possibility permission understand mental dynamic deontic epistemic good-quality ability Habitual futurity
Figure 2-1 The Semantic Map of Hui (Fan 2012:224)
In Figure 2-1, the prototype of the Chinese hui was a verb with the meaning of
‘understand something’. From this, three main modal meanings of it were developed, such as mental dynamic, deontic and epistemic. Moreover, Fan (2012) addresses that some additional meanings of hui should be found on the map. First, the mental dynamic hui is divided into two sub-meanings (i.e., physical ability and good-quality ability)
according to a person’s abilities (see Section 2.1). Second, the habitual hui is stretched
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from the good- quality ability hui, for example, if a person is good at playing card games, he is highly possible to form a habit to play it under this situation. Third, the futurity hui is developed from the deontic hui. This meaning can be used to denote an event or
statement based on a schedule, plan or forecast. Fourth, the physical ability hui can further expand to the possibility and permission hui’s (Fan 2012). Overall, according
to Fan (2012), the order of main meanings of hui is as follows: verb > dynamic > deontic
> epistemic = futurity.
2.2.3 The Feature-based Classification of the Chinese Modal Hui
The Feature-based Classification is an approach that aims to investigate the semantic features of a modal verb (Huang 1999, Hsieh 2006, Wu 2009, Fan 2012). In this classification, each meaning of a modal not only will be labeled with a feature, but also will be arranged into a figure. For instance, Wu (2009) states that the Chinese modal hui can have four features. The epistemic hui is marked [+ epistemic], and the dynamic and deontic hui’s are marked [- epistemic]. Moreover, [- epistemic] can be further divided into [+ deontic] and [- deontic]. Figure 2-2 shows the features of hui in a figure:
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Figure 2-2 The Feature-based Classification of Hui (Wu 2009:70)
In this figure, Wu (2009) states that the semantic feature extension is from [- deontic]
to [+ deontic], and finally to [+ epistemic] based on Greenburg’s (1966) Markedness Theory. By which theory, the dynamic hui is ranked as an unmark feature, which is much earlier than the deontic (more marked) and epistemic modals (most marked).
Therefore, the order of these three meanings is: dynamic > deontic > epistemic.
Furthermore, Guo (1995), and Parafragou (1998) indicate that the dynamic modal is the easiest and that deontic may cause a little difficulty for children, whereas epistemic modal will be the hardest modal in first language acquisition.
Based on the concept of the Feature-based Classification, Fan (2012) also analyzes
the modal hui and further utilizes features like proposition/event2 , inside/outside3 ,
2 The proposition feature is about a person’s guess or judgement; and the Event feature is about a person’s ability, volition, or duty (cf. Palmer 2001).
3 The features of inside and outside refer to the source of an event or action. For example, the modal verb can, on the one hand, can be used to describe a person’s ability, such as Zhangsan can speak English. On the other hand, it also can be used to denote a person’s ability, such as Zhangsan can run (Fan 2012).
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realis/ irrealis4, possibility/ necessity5to analyze the dynamic, deontic, and epistemic
hui’s. The features of different meanings of hui are presented in (19):
(19) a. dynamic [event, inside, irrealis, possibility]
b. deontic [event, outside, irrealis, necessity]
c. epistemic [proposition, outside, irrealis, necessity/possibility]
(Fan 2012:219)
As pointed out by Fan (2012), the dynamic hui is developed first because it has the feature of inside, which is less complicated than the outside feature. Likewise, Li (2001) and Yang (2001) state that the evolution of the dynamic hui is from inside rather than outside. Second, the deontic hui is developed earlier than the epistemic hui, although they both have similar features. However, the deontic hui has a feature of event, which is stronger than proposition of the epistemic hui. The event feature denotes a clear incident or action, but the proposition feature does not (Bybee 1994, Auwera &
Plungian 1998, Fan 2012). Therefore, the development of the Chinese modal hui is dynamic > deontic > epistemic.
In conclusion, both Wu (2009) and Fan (2012) use the concept of the Feature-based Classification to analyze the modal hui, and their findings indicate that the development path of dynamic > deontic > epistemic is the most convincing.
4 The realis feature refers to a state or event which is always true in the real world. By contrast, the feature of irrealis is about a state or event which may or may not be true in the world (Givon 1994).
5 The necessity and possibility features refer to the probability of a thing which may occur in the world (Fan 2012).
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2.3 First Language Acquisition of Modal Verbs
In this section, we will review four empirical studies of modal verbs in English and in Chinese. Section 2.3.1 presents a study of the English modals can, may, must, and will, and Section 2.3.2 discusses an analysis of children’s modal utterances in English. Section 2.3.3 introduces language acquisition research of the Chinese modal
hui with a focus on its pragmatic functions. Finally, a study on children’s interpretation
of might and may is discussed in Section 2.3.4.
2.3.1 Modyanova et al. (2009)
Modal verbs can be used to express a person’s judgement, desire, or obligation, and they can have various meanings in a sentence. For example, a speaker can use the modal may to indicate the possibility or necessity of an action or event (Kratzer 1991, Modyanova et al. 2010). In first language acquisition, some researchers (Jackendoff 1972, Bernnan 1993, Bhatt 1997, Papafragou 1998, Wurmbrand 1999) point out that children may be confused about the various meanings of a modal verb according to their interpretation and cognitive ability6. Therefore, Modyanova et al. (2009) designed two video scenarios: deontic scenario and epistemic scenario, each of which contained the English modal verbs can, may, must and will.
6 The Theory of Mind (TOM) refers to a subject’s cognitive ability, which shows a subject is aware of an object’s mental state and further interprets the state by his/her own (Papafragou 1998).