Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T02:01:51.292Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

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.)

Footnotes

*

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

References

Bibliography and Abbreviations

Ping-ch'üan, ChangChung-kuo K'ao-ku Pao-kao Chi (Archaeologica Sinica) II, Hsiao T'un Vol. 2, Yin-hsü Wen-tzu, Ping-Pien (Fascicule Three). 6 Volumes. Taipei: Institute of History and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, 1957–1972 (abbreviated ; see S 589).Google Scholar
Meng-chia, Ch'en. Yin Hsü Pu-tz'u Tsung-shu . Peking, 1956. Taipei reprint, 1971, published under name Ch'en Tingho . Pu-tz'u Tsung-shu.Google Scholar
Graham, Angus C. “The Grammar of the Mohist Dialectical Chapters.“ A Symposium on Chinese Grammar. Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series No, 6 (Lund, Sweden, 1971), pp. 55–141.Google Scholar
GSR: Bernard Karlgren, , “Grammata Serica Recensa.” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 29: 1–332.Google Scholar
Karlgren: Karlgren, Bernard. The Book of Documents. 1950; reprinted from BMFEA 22.Google Scholar
Legge: Legge, James. The Chinese Classics. Vol. III The Shoo King, Vol. IV The She King (reprinted in China, 1939).Google Scholar
Li: Hsiao-ting, Li. Chia-ku Wen-tzu Chi-shih . 14 vols. Nankang, Taiwan, 1965.Google Scholar
Malmquist, N.G.D. “Some Observations on a Grammar of Late Archaic Chinese.” T'oung Pao 48 (1960): 252–286.Google Scholar
Serruys 1974: Serruys, Paul L-M. “Studies in the Language of the Shang Oracle Inscriptions.” T'oung Pao 60 (1974): 12–120.Google Scholar
S: Kunio, Shima. Inkyo Bokuji Sōrui . 2d ed. Tokyo, Kyuko Shoin, 1971.Google Scholar
Takashima: Takashima, K.Negatives in the King Wu Ting Bone Inscriptions. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1973.Google Scholar
Yin-chih, Wang. Ching Chuan Shih Tz'u . 1799.Google Scholar
Ch'i-ch'ang, Wu. Yin-hsü Shu-ch'i Chieh-ku . Taipei, 1960 and 1971 (originally a series of articles in Wen-che Chi-k'an 3-6 [1934–1937]).Google Scholar
I-p'ing, Yen. “Shuo ‘Yu’” , 7 double pages, first article in Chung-kuo Wen-tzu 47 (1973).Google Scholar