Cognitive System of Chinese Modal Verbs from the Perspective of Cognitive Science

Abstract

Abstract The combination of cognitive science and linguistics has been a matter for nearly a decade or two, which results in the birth of a new marginal subject-cognitive linguistics, indicating a new development trend in language research. Modal verbs are highly grammatical, framed verbs that have relatively prominent cognitive features in language. Over the past two decades, Chinese modal verbs have received considerable attention from many different perspectives. Studies thrived, focusing on its formal aspects, such as the semantic features, modality, primarily syntactic features. By contrast, the delineation for its cognitive system is rarely seen. From the perspective of cognitive science, this research to some extend presents the cognitive process the psychological representation of modal verbs in conceptualizers’ mind.