THE SO-CALLED ＂RHETORICAL INTERROGATION＂ IN MANDARIN CHINESE

Interrogative sentences are not always used as actual requests for information. ＂Rhetorical interrogations＂ are interrogations that have assertive value; this displacement of modality is connected with an inversion of negation. In Chinese, this kind of construction, called fanwenju (FWJ) has two types of markers. Some markers are specific of the medium used, such as, in the spoken form, intonation patterns, or, in the written form, the use of specific adverbs (e.g. nandao ＂hard to say＂). There are also syntactic markers, such as the position of the negation, whose function is more systematic than in European languages. I study three types of sequences. (1) In negative sentences, the adverbs jiu ＂thus, soon＂, ye ＂also, even＂, hai ＂still＂ usually precede the negation. The reverse is acceptable only if the sentence may be understood as FWJ. (2) In predicates including an auxiliary verb, the most usual place for the negation is before the auxiliary. The negation before the second verb usually denotes a FWJ. (3) Although the sequence ＂negation + dei (must)＂ is considered by most authors as ungrammatical, it is currently used with a FWJ meaning. In this paper I also discuss the most frequent uses of FWJ in the different types of interrogative sentences in Chinese, i.e. tezhi wenti ＂Question-word Question＂, shifei wenti ＂Intonation/particle Question＂ and fanfu wenti ＂A-not-A Question＂.