The expression of modality in Peking and Taipei Mandarin
关于北京语和台北国语中的情态表示
Robert M. Sanders 沈德思

Abstract 摘要
Proceeding inductively from observations of natural language recorded onto audio tape, this paper compares the range of meanings and frequen-cies of usage in Peking and Taipei Mandarin for eight markers of modality. These markers are xiing, yew, dei, bie, hut, neng, keyi and xing. Among the discoveries made is the fact that Taipei speakers are much more likely to employ specific lexical items, e.g., ydo and hut, to indicate 'desire' than are Peking speakers. For Peking speakers, the existence of 'desire' is inferred, and hence sufficiently salient in most cases to suppress an inclination to be lexically explicit. Likewise, the semantic range of both ydo and hut incor-porate many more senses in Taipei Mandarin than in Peking Mandarin. For example, in Taipei, yao clearly contains both a sense of 'must' and 'prohi-bition.' In Peking it is also possible to use yew) in this way, though 'must' and 'prohibition' are usually expressed instead by dbii and bie respectively. Additionally, in the expression of 'ability,' Taipei speakers show a strong tendency to select hut, while Peking speakers show an even stronger ten-dency to utilize ?zing. Finally, in the expression of the Chinese equivalent of `OK,' Taipei speakers clearly prefer keyi, while Peking speakers usually select xing.

本文采用归纳法通过对自然录音语料的分析，对北京话和台北国语中的八个情态词语的语义范围及其使用频率加以比较。这些情态词语包括［想］、［要］、［得］、［别］、［会］、［能］、［可以］和［行］。我们发现讲台北国语的人比讲北京话的人更倾向于使用［要］和［会］来表示意愿，而北京人则更倾向于把意愿的意思隐含在句中而不是用情态词语直接表达出来。同时，在台北国语中，［要］和［会］所涵概的语义范围要比北京话宽得多，例如，在台北国语中要明显地包括［必须］和［禁止］的意义。这种情况在北京话中虽然也存在，但这两种意思一是由［得］和［别］来分别表示的。此外，在表示能力的时候，台北国语较倾向于用［会］，北京话则更倾向于用［能］。当表达相当于英文＂ＯＫ＂的意思时，台北国语明显的倾向用［可以］，而北京语则通常用［行］。

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