Word-Class Flexibility in Classical Chinese: Verbal and Adverbial Uses of Nouns

268 Pages·2011·15.45 MB·English

by  Lukáš Zádrapa

Word-Class Flexibility in Classical Chinese
Conceptual History and
Chinese Linguistics
Edited by
Christoph Harbsmeier
Bjarke Frellesvig
Michael Lackner
Alain Peyraube
Michael Puett
Rudolf Wagner
VOLUME2
Word-Class Flexibility
in Classical Chinese
Verbal and Adverbial Uses of Nouns
By
Lukas Zadrapa
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2011
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zadrapa. Lukas.
Word-class flexibility in classical Chinese: verbal and adverbial uses of nouns I
by LukaS Zadrapa
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-20631-1 (alk. paper)
1. Chinese language-Nominals. 2. Chinese language-Verbals. 3. Chinese
language-Word formation. 4. Chinese language-Grammar, Historical. I. Title.
PL1232.Z33 2011
495.1 '554-dc22
2011011604
ISSN 2210-2884
ISBN 978 90 04 20631 1
Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden. The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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[POUTN1K] PRISEL MEZI GRAMMATIKY. I vesli sme do auditorium jake
hosi, kdez, aj, plno s rafickami, mladych i starjch, malujidch litery, carky a
punktiky: a kdy:l jeden jinak nez druhy napsal aneb vyslovil, jednak se sobe
vysmivali, jednak vadili. Za tim rozvesovali po stenach slova a Mdali se o ne,
co ktere kteremu ptijde etc., a tu je skladali, rozkladali, ptestavovali rozlicne.
Nacez ja nadivajice se a nic mimo to nevida, tekl sem: ,Tof jsou detinske
veci. Pod'me jinam."
Jan Amos Komensky, Labyrint sveta a raj srdce (1631), kap. XI.
[THE PILGRIM] CAME AMONG THE GRAMMARIANS. We then entered
a lecture room full of young and old, who, with pointers in their hands, were
engaged in drawing letters, dashes, and dots; whenever any of them wrote
or pronounced his formula differently from the rest, they either ridiculed or
scolded him. Moreover, they hung some words on the wall and disputed as
to what belonged to which; then they composed, separated, or transposed
them variously. I looked at this for a while, but seeing nothing in it, I said:
"These are but childish trivialities. Let us go elsewhere."
Comenius, The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart (1631),
ch. XI (after the version by Francis Lutzow).
Deus voluptatem, ait idem Synesius, animae, fibulae instar inseruit, cujus
beneficia diuturnam in corpore mansionem sustineret. Tale quidpiam est dis
ciplinarum humaniorum venustas. Alibi finita pleraque et eadem recurrunt,
quod semel scis, semper scis. Hie campus aperitur, quem visu terminare non
possis, novi flares, nova nemora, silvae, nova flumina, maria, littora, novus
orbis! Haec mihi visa est necessaria studiorum nostrorum defensio; digni
tate, gloria aliis rebus fortasse vincimur: jucunditate non item.
Bohuslav Balbin, Verisimilia humaniorum disciplinarum (Pragae 1666).
CONTENTS
Preface ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Chapter One Introduction 1
Chapter Two Historical Background 14
II.1 Philological tradition 15
II.l.l Yuan Renlin 16
II.2 Phonological tradition 19
II.3 Mashi wentong 21
II.3.1 Jiajie 21
II.3.2 Bi~myin 22
II.3.3 Other 24
Chapter Three Modern Approaches 26
III.1 China 26
III.l.l Chinese mainstream 27
III.1.2 Zhang Wengu6 32
III.2 West 43
III.2.1 Humboldt 44
III.2.2 Gabelentz 45
III.2.3 Kennedy 49
III.2.4 Cikoski 53
III.2.5 Nikitina 59
III.2.6 Bisang 66
Chapter Four Early Chinese Morphology and HY 71
Chapter Five Word Classes in CC and CC Noun 77
V.1 Theoretical prerequisites 77
V .1.1 Word classes as radial categories 78
V.1.2 Noun, verb, adjective as universal prototypes 79
V.1.3 Typological markedness 83
V.2 Situation in CC 83
V.2.1 CC semantic map and its effectivity 83
V.2.2 Word-class flexibility and polysemy 92
V.3 Object words ................................................................................. 105
viii CONTENTS
Chapter Six Object Words Denoting Processes 111
VI.l General issues 111
Vl.1.1 Delimitation of subject of analysis 111
Vl.1.2 Overview of approaches to elementary issues 113
Vl.2 Semantic issues 134
Vl.2.1 Semantic foundations of the HY process 134
Vl.2.2 Patterns of derivation 153
VI.3 Lexicological issues 180
Vl.3.1 Word formation and lexicalization 189
VI.4 Comments on theory of interpretation 197
Chapter Seven Object Words as Modifiers of Action Words 201
VII.1 Anatomy of the N construction 202
ADV
VII.1.1 Parallelism of adnominal and adverbial
modification 203
VII.1.2 Adverbial modification in the semantic map 205
VII.1.3 CC object words and adverbial modification 207
VII.2 Types of circumstance expressed by NA nv 215
VII.2.1 Time: a special case 217
VII.2.2 Basic categories of N Anv 218
VII.3 Interpretation 235
Chapter Eight Conclusions and Prospects 240
Literature 245
Primary sources 245
Electronic databases 245
Secondary literature 245
Index ............................................................................................................... 251
PREFACE
This book originated as a doctoral dissertation defended in December 2009
at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, and it is an outcome
of approximately five years' effort. The work on it was long and demanding
but extraordinarily inspiring and, in a certain sense and to certain extent,
also satisfying. And I remember very intensely the somewhat strange feeling
I had when I was delving into the secrets of Classical Chinese grammar on
the banks of a lake in deep woods of Southern Bohemia (as was often the
case), an environment in many respects so dramatically opposed to the world
of China of the Warring States period. My hope is that the reading of this
book will at least have that incentive for the benevolent reader as its writing
did for me.
I would like to thank Olga Lomova for supervision of my thesis, my wife
Anna Zadrapova for her unstinting support without which it could not have
been written, and my parents. I am indebted to Katarina Feriancikova for
being so flexible and adaptable when she rendered librarian services to me. I
would also like to express my gratitude to Christoph Harbsmeier for inspira
tion and motivation-by the way, this study would be hardly conceivable in
this shape without his Thesaurus Linguae Sericae-and to David Sehnal, who
has been my teacher in Chinese philology. Wolfgang Behr provided me with
a very detailed and highly insightful commentary on my original treatise and
it was he who initiated its publication.
The original dissertation came into being with support from the Chiang
Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, whose fellow
ship I obtained for the term 2008-2009.