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The Pronominal Use of the Verb Yu (Gi̭ŭg) * in Early Archaic Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

David Shepherd Nivision
David Shepherd Nivision*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Extract

1. The word yu in Classical Chinese usually has the apparent meaning of the existential quantifier in logic, and the grammatical functin of a transitive verb. (That is, e.g., in Nan jen yu yen … … “Among the southern people there is a saying…,” the word yen “saying” is the grammatical object of yu, and if we substitute a pronoun the substitute has to be the object pronoun chih.) Yu also is used in a noun phrase before a group name or general term, and the analysis of its syntax and meaning in this use is the problem that motivates this paper. The use is rare except before dynasty names, where it has continued to the present, e.g., yu Yin, yu Ming, etc. The analysis of this latter use has been disputed by Chinese grammarians for the past three centuries. Two interpretations have emerged. At present, one interpretation appears to be accepted by prominent Chinese linguists and philologists, while the other is generally followed by the leading Western translators of early texts.

Type
Articles
Information
Early China , Volume 3 , Fall 1977 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1977

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Footnotes

*

I have resolved Shang graphs into modern forms wherever this is possible without prejudice to the argument.

References

Bibliography and Abbreviations

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