Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:43:55.316Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Where Do Classical Chinese Nouns Come From?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

Christoph Harbsmeier
Christoph Harbsmeier*
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo 3, Norway
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The hypothesis presented here is that in Classical Chinese syntax, nouns and noun phrases show signs of being, like verbs, capable of functioning as main predications. A definition of the noun and verb in Classical Chinese is offered, based on analysis of passages from pre-Han and Han texts, and it is argued that Classical Chinese can be more precisely understood by application of the principles of formal logic to the study of quantification, negation, conditionals, and pronominalization. This approach contrasts with approaches based on more traditional phonological, etymological, or philological methods.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Early China , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , 1985 , pp. 77 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1983 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

SECONDARY SOURCES

Bach, E. “Nouns and Noun Phrases.” In Universals in Linguistic Theory, edited by Bach, Emmon and Harms, Robert T.. New York, 1968.Google Scholar
Chao, Y. R. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. 1968.Google Scholar
Egerod, S. “The Typology of Archaic Chinese.” In A Symposium on Chinese Grammar, pp. 157–174. Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies (Copenhagen), Monograph Series, no. 6 (1971).Google Scholar
Egerod, S.. “Les parti cui ari tis de la grammaire chinoise.” In Langues et techniques. Nature et société (Festschrift Andre Haudricourt), edited by Thomas, J. M. C. and Bernot, L., pp. 101–109. 1972.Google Scholar
Egerod, S.. “Differentiation and Continuity in Classical Chinese: Apropos of Two Recent Works by Christoph Harbsmeier.” In Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology (Taipei, Academia Sinica) 52, pt. 1 (1982):89–112.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. and Langendoen, D. T. Studies in Linguistic Semantics. New York, 1971.Google Scholar
Graham, A. C. “Some Basic Problems in Classical Chinese Syntax.” Asia Major 15 (1969): 192–216.Google Scholar
Graham, A. C.. “Review of Christoph Harbsmeier, Aspects of Classical Chinese Syntax (1981).” Acta Orientalia (Copenhagen) 45 (1984):196–204.Google Scholar
Harbsmeier, C. “Wilhelm von Humboldts Brief an Abel-Rémusat und die philosophische Grammatik des Altchinesischen.” Grammatica Universalis (Stuttgart), vol. 17 (1979).Google Scholar
Harbsmeier, C.. “Current Issues in Classical Chinese Grammar.” Acta Orientalia (Copenhagen) 41 (1980): 126–148.Google Scholar
Harbsmeier, C.. Aspects of Classical Chinese Syntax. Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies (Copenhagen), Monograph Series, no. 45 (1981).Google Scholar
Harbsmeier, C.. “How Verbal are Classical Chinese Nouns?” Paper presented at the 14th International Conference of Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Beijing, 1982. Mimeographed.Google Scholar
Harbsmeier, C.. “Nominalization and Subordination in Classical Chinese.” Paper presented at the 15th International Conference of Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Seattle, 1983. Mimeographed.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. Essentials of English Grammar. London, 1933.Google Scholar
Karlgren, B. “Excursions in Chinese Grammar.” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Stockholm) 41 (1951): 107–133.Google Scholar
Malmqvist, G. “On the Functions and Meanings of the Graph chyi in the Tsuoojuan.” In Zhongyang yanjiuyuan . Guoji Hanxue huivi lunwenji 1 (1982):365–390.Google Scholar
McCawley, J. “Where Do Noun Phrases Come From?” In Readings in English Transformational Grammar, edited by Jacobs, R. A. and Rosenbaum, P. S.. Toronto, 1970.Google Scholar
Mullie, J. J. M. “Le mot-particule Tche.” T'oung Pao 36 (1942):181–400.Google Scholar
Yang, Lien-sheng. “Letters Between Hu Shih, Yuen-ren Chao, and Lien-sheng Yang discussing ‘nou-yeh’.” BIHP 53.4 (1982).Google Scholar
Shongling, Zhou et al. Han Fei Zi Suoyin. Beijing, 1983.Google Scholar
Dexi, Zhu. Yufa jiangyi . Peking, 1982.Google Scholar
Dexi, Zhu. “Zizhi he zhuanzhi ” (Self-designation and transferred-designation). Fangyan 1 (1983): 16–31.Google Scholar