Abstract

As a concept，“Emphasis”is frequently used in the Chinese theory and applied research．Although it is very important，scholars use it very casually and have not given a clear and consistent definition for it．In addition，scholars concern themselves mostly with concrete，scattered syntactic structures，rarely on the systematic and in-depth study on the phenomenon of “Emphasis”and the study of cognitive interpretation.

In this dissertation，a relatively clear definition of “Emphasis”is given under the inspiration of the theory of Attention in cognitive psychology．The paper is structured around “Emphasis”．The cognitive explanation of so-called traditional emphatic structures and arrangement of Emphatic structures of similar meaning are focused．This is done according to the degree of “Emphasis”.The main content of each chapter is as follows:

Chapter I briefly describes the origin of the selected topic，the purpose of writing the dissertation，as well as the framework.

ChapterⅡintroduces and comments upon previous studies and reviews the relevant results on “Emphasis”undertaken at home and abroad．There are some shortcomings of the previous studies on the essence of “Emphasis”.The awareness of “Emphasis”in theory and methodology needs to be deepened．Under the attention theory in cognitive psychology，the two conditions to judge “Emphasis”are put forward，these are the unconventional，highlight and strengthen．The new definition of “Emphasis”is therefore given: the speaker intentionally or unintentionally uses some means to acquire the listener’s attention in the process of language expression.

Chapter III of this dissertation is on the theory and method of the research．The approach of Semantic category research is a process that leads Language Meaning to Language Form．This inspires us to place the Emphatic Syntax structures in the scope of Semantic category research．The study explores the significance and feasibility of the “Emphasis”category，on the basis of which “Emphasis”category and its inferior category are constructed．Under Functional Grammar and Cognitive Theory，the study focuses on the real corpus，the research of usage，the "text-function" and communicative function，and language subjectivity.

Chapter IV carries on the analysis concerning the relationships between “Emphasis”and Focus，and between “Emphasis”and Contrast．The three concepts are often confused．This chapter analyzes the similarities and differences of the three concepts，which builds the foundation for later research.

Chapter V，VI，VII，VIII carries the main argument of this dissertation．The first and second sections of ChapterV prove the emphatic characters of the Lian sentence．The differences between the Lian sentence and the Shenzhi sentence are focused on in the third section．There are three identical aspects between the shenzhi…dou/ye…sentence and the Lian sentence: subjective polarity quantity，subjective overall quantity，and unexpectedness．The shenzhi-sentence（has no dou/ye）and the lian sentence is the same in subjective polarity quantity but the shenzhi-sentence（has no dou/ye）does not entail subjective overall quantity and its mood of unexpectedness is weaker．It is found that other items of semantic sequence must appear before the shenzhi…dou/ye…-sentence，but not the Lian-sentence．The fourth section discusses the emphatic graduation between the “lian…dou…”sentence and the “lian…ye…”sentence．Corpus analysis shows that although they have different semantic interpretations in emphatic graduation，there is no evidence to prove that differences exist between them．Furthermore，it is also found that the emphatic graduation of the Shenzhi sentence is higher than that of the Lian sentence.The fifth section studies the “jishi”clause，firstly proving its emphatic character，then，through comparison with the Lian sentence，drawing the conclusion that the “jishi”clause is a kind of emphatic sentence．It’s structure which has very close emphatic content with that of the Lian sentence，but semantically tends to express hypothesized emphatic content．

Chapter VI focuses on the interpretation of the emphatic characters of the “interrogative pronoun + ye/dou”sentence．Through data comparison，it is difficult to distinguish which emphatic degree is higher between the “shui + ye”and the “shui+ dou”．However，the “shui+ dou”favors the expression affirmation，meanwhile the “shui + ye”expresses total negativity．After analysis，we believe that the emphatic graduation of the lian sentence is higher than that of the “interrogative pronoun + ye/dou”．In addition the emphatic graduation of “wulun/buguan+ interrogative pronoun + ye/dou”is higher than that of the “interrogative pronoun + ye/dou”.

Chapter Ⅶ firstly proves the “shi ……de”sentence conforms to two emphatic conditions which we proposed．Secondly，research on what is emphasized by “shi….de”is conducted．The method used was to count the proportion of syntactic elements in the “shi……de”，and carry on sorting according to the number of various types of samples．The conclusion is that if there is an independent syntactic component between shi and de，this independent syntactic component must be emphasized，for example，independent adjective，pronoun，adverb，verb，four character phrases and so on．We also investigate the three different styles in which “shi……de”is used．The statistics indicate that in these three kind of styles，‘the verb’ is used most often，followed by “the adjective”．This chapter also summarizes the semantic characteristics of the “shi….de”sentence .The “shi……de”sentence confirms the elements of the proposition．

Chapter VIII explores the repetition phenomenon from the perspective of “Emphasis”．Rhetorical Studies of the repetition phenomenon are reviewed in this chapter．The reason of repetition，whose function is often regarded as “emphasis”，is explained．This chapter focuses on exploring different kinds of repetition in spoken language style，and the ways to express “Emphasis”．

Chapter Ⅸ concludes and summaries this dissertation，explaining the innovative value of the obtained results．In addition，a number of issues which require further studies are put forward.

Key words: Emphasis，Category，Graduation，Polarity Quantity，Overall Quantity，Unconventional，Confirm，Strengthen