A Study on the Pragmaticalization of hao(好) as a Formulaic Greeting in Ancient Chinese : And discuss Formulaic Greeting nihao(你好) and nihaoma(你好吗)

Abstract

This paper examines the pragmatic process of hao(好) as greeting. The development of hao(好) has experienced three important stages. The first stage is the Tang and Song dynasties. At this time, hao(好) appears as a morpheme in greetings. haozai(好在) is the greeting when meeting. It has the form of question and statement at the same time.The second stage is the yuan and Ming Dynasties. hao(好) began to become a separate word for greetings. The interrogative function of inquiry greeting gradually weakened, the temporal expression and the addition of body movements appeared in the Yuan Dynasty and inherited and developed in the Ming Dynasty. The yuan and Ming Dynasties was an important period for the hao(好) greeting to change from interrogative to declarative, and it was a transitional period for the hao(好) word from free greeting to programmed greeting. The third stage is from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China. The most prominent feature is that the form of person + hao(好) has become the mainstream expression of hao(好) greetings. The expression forms of hao(好) greeting are very diverse. In addition to various modal particles, there are many expressions with the concept of time. nihao(你好) and nihaoma(你好嗎)in modern Chinese are the pragmatic results of nihao(你好) greetings from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China. The reason why the word hao(好) can be used in greetings is closely related to its own meaning and the cognitive process of Chinese symbolic language. hao(好) uses physical health to express psychological comfort, which is a metaphor. Using this psychological comfort to express the comfort caused by various situations is a metonymic expression.