Revisiting Some Characteristics of Chinese from the Interpretive Mode in Old Chinese:Topic,Dui-speech,Word Class and Subjectivity
This article focuses on the interpretive mode in ancient Chinese exegesis literature and other literature from the perspectives of grammar and discourse organization.When comparing and interpreting synonyms in Old Chinese exegetic documents and some other documents,the interpretation forms used are very concise,and the component that refers to the discourse topic is often omitted,leaving only the most crucial information.The omitted components and the ones left behind after the omission have diverse and flexible syntactic positions,which are controlled by pragmatics instead of syntax.As a result,the semantics of the clauses must be understood within the discourse.The interpretive mode of synonyms in Old Chinese demonstrates the prominence of topics in the organization of discourse.Sometimes two explanatory clauses must be read together to understand the discourse topic being discussed,which means that the discourse topic can be constructed or emerge in the juxtaposition of the clauses,clearly reflecting the characteristic of"dui-speeches generating meaning"in Chinese,which is crucial to the correct understanding of ancient annotations and similar expressions.Due to the frequent component omission,the explanations and the interpreted terms often belong to different word classes,indicating that the differences in the word class of content words in Old Chinese were not attached with much importance.The frequent occurrence of word class differences between explanations and interpreted terms in Old Chinese also indicates to some extent that in Old Chinese,the differences in word classes among content words were more blurred than in modem Chinese.In the corresponding sentences of modem Chinese,the word class of interpreted terms and explanations are often consistent.This indicates that in modem Chinese,the word class boundaries between content words are clearer than those in Old Chinese,and the degree of differentiation between verbs and nouns has increased.Diachronically,the form of explanation was derived from the topic construction.The format of interpretation can be divided into two categories:"explanation+interpreted term"and"interpreted term+explanation".When the explanation is placed before the interpreted term,the clause is focused on expressing classification;when the explanation follows the interpreted term,the clause is focused on expressing connotation and can accommodate more types of semantic relationship,showing stronger subjectivity.The interpretive mode not only reflects some common features of Chinese language throughout the history,but also reflects some particular characteristics of Old Chinese.
万方数据
