TITLE:
Comparative Study of Chinese and Japanese Confusion Questions—Centered on “Yara” and “Bu Zhi Dao”
AUTHORS:
Ning Ding
KEYWORDS:
Chinese, Japanese, Confusion Questions, Yara, Bu Zhi Dao
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.10 No.5,
October
26,
2020
ABSTRACT: The main research content of this article is the expression of “temptation, interrogative sentence” in Chinese and Japanese. Previous study about confusion questions is mainly about “darōka” “kana·kashira” or the comparison of them with Chinese sentences ended with “ne”. But the author found that besides “ne” “darōka” “kana·kashira”, both “yara” in Japanese and “bu zhi dao” in Chinese can be used as expressions in confusion questions which do not have the function of information inquiry. If these two usages are not included in the research scope, then the study of Japanese and Chinese interrogative sentences will be incomplete and one-sided. This paper will first clarify the usage and meaning of “bu zhi dao” and “yara”, and then makes a comparative study of them to prove that the “only declarative, not interrogative” characteristics of the usage of “yara” are more similar to “bu zhi dao”.