Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics

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Modal Verbs, Premodern
(5,306 words)

Chinese does not distinguish different moods in the morphology of the verb; at all times modal values such as necessity and possibility can be realized by lexical means, i.e., modal auxiliary verbs and modal adverbs. Additionally, sentential mood (declarative, imperative, interrogative, or exclamatory) can be expressed by a number of sentence-final particles. In this art…

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Barbara MEISTERERNST, “Modal Verbs, Premodern”, in: Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, General Editor Rint Sybesma. Consulted online on 27 March 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2210-7363_ecll_COM_00000273>
First published online: 2015



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