Qin Chinese Parataxis Syntax And Its Development

This dissertation is aimed to explore how to construct a system of grammar of parataxis of Chinese in pre-Qin and its change and development of the system of grammar after Han. However, due to openness of the problem and multitude of content to be researched, we choose only four special subjects as examples to discuss in order to make more people to pay a heavy attention to the problem and to deepen the research of the problem.The whole dissertation is made up of seven chapters.Except the first chapter, the other six chapters are arranged in consideration of following reasons.Since there is not an agreement about what is grammar of parataxis, we arrange the second chapter "what is grammar of parataxis" to discuss the problem and take it as theoretical foundation for the various chapters following it.Since the phenomena of one word possessing many meanings are ubiquitous in pre-Qin, it seems to be especially important to clarify the relationships between various meanings of the same notional words and the transferring conditions between them. Therefore, the third chapter "The phenomena of nouns being used as verbs in Chinese of pre-Qin and their development" takes the most common phenomena of nouns being used as verbs as exampels to explore the problem, from which we can see that it is on the level of grammatical unit of words that the chapter discusses the grammar of parataxis in Chinese of pre-Qin. There exited numerous phenomena of transferred-designation of predicate words in sentential constructions in Chinese of pre-Qin, about which problem the most important task is to make clear relationships between its vocabulary meaning and its nominal meaning and the conditions of realization of transferring of designation, so we have arranged the forth chapter "the phenomena of transferred-designation of the predicate words in Chinese of pre-Pin and their development".The nominal elements in real utterances have their referential,being specific elements or non-specific ones, so it is necessary to explore which kind of referential the nominal elements have realized, its conditions being what, the influences of the various kinds of referential on sentential constructions being what, of which the fifth chapter "reference of nouns in Chinese of pre-Qin and its development" explores.It can be seen that the forth and fifth chapter discuss the grammar of parataxis in Chinese of pre-Qin in terms of sentential grammar. There exited multitude of ellipses of subjects in Chinese of pre-Qin. A further exploration of relationships between ellipses of subjects and grammar of parataxis in Chinese of pre-Qin are still required to make, about which the sixth chapter "ellipses of subjects in Chinese of pre-Qin and their development" discusses. Evidently, it is in terms of text that the chapter discusses the grammar of parataxis in Chinese of pre-Qin. Finally, did the grammar of parataxis in Chinese of pre-Qin have developed and changed? What laws did it have if it had developed and changed? About which the seventh chapter "from parataxis to hypotaxis:the exploration of developmental tendency of Chinese grammar" discusses. It is thus evident that, although the dissertation chooses only the four representing special subjects to research the problem about grammar of parataxis in Chinese of pre-Qin, it covers the comprehensive problems from words to sentential grammar and text, which forms a comparatively integrated system of grammar of Chinese of pre-Qin.The main contents of every chapter as following:The first chapter "introduction" introduces briefly the value of research of the problem, the situations of the research, and the methods of research, among which the important is the latter. We introduce and comment the previous research of problems about parataxis in Chinese by scholars from the six respects:the definition of parataxis, the phenomena of parataxis, characteristics of parataxis, laws of parataxis in Chinese, the system of parataxis grammar of Chinese and the philosophical and thinking foundations for parataxis of Chinese. We hold that, although the previous researches have attained many achievements, the most conclusions have resulted from simplifying contrasting with morphologic languages in the west, therefore the furthermore research is necessary.The second chapter "what is grammar of parataxis" explores the problem about the viewpoint of parataxis grammar, the connotation and characteristics of it on the basis of checking the traditional viewpoint of grammar. We hold that the grammatical theories should study corresponding relationships between phonetic forms and semantic contents, instead of only studying corresponding relationships between grammatical forms and its meanings as traditional grammar did.In terms of corresponding relationships between phonetic forms and semantic contents, the languages of parataxis usually exploit phonetic forms to express semantic contents directly, which results in that the relationships between phonetic forms and their semantic contents are that of one form corresponding many meanings, accordingly, the grammar of parataxis should only research the relationships between various meanings expressed by one phonetic form and conditions that cause the phenomena, namely, the research should see from the angle of meanings. The research in the dissertation is based on this kind of theory.The third chapter "nouns functioning as verbs in Chinese of pre-Qin and its development" mainly discusses the semantic foundations for nouns functioning as verbs in Chinese of pre-Qin and its development after Han. In Chinese of pre-Qin, the phenomena of nouns functioning as verbs, in other words, one word to two speech types(noun and verb) or on word to two meanings(thing and action) are ubiquitous. It is proven that the main factors determining the usualness of nouns being used as verbs are the conceptive structure of nouns:"meanings o special properties + meanings of type".If the meaning of special properties of a noun comes from the properties of functions of the thing designated by the noun, the noun can be used as verbs, otherwise, the special properties from the properties of nature or shape of the thing designated by the noun, the noun can not be used as verbs. After Han, the phenomena of nouns functioning as verbs had changed mostly to one word being used only as one speech type, namely one word functioning only as noun or verb, except a few of them, which shows apparently that the developmental trend from parataxis to hypotaxis of Chinese grammar.The forth chapter "transferred designation of predicate words in Chinese of pre-Qin and its development" mainly discusses the conditions of realization of transferred designation or constructions and its development after Han. In Chinese of pre-Qin, the predicative elements may transfer to designate the relevant persons or things concerning motions and actions or properties and states, namely one word to two meanings (motions or actions and persons or things), which is so-called transferred-designation of sentential grammar. It is proven that transferred-designating could not happen except the predicative elements appear in particular constructions such as coordinate constructions, contrastive constructions,the positions of objects etc. The transferred-designation of sentential grammar had disappeared after Han, which were substituted for mostly by substantial elements such as constructions with "zhe(者')",that with "suo(所)",or attributive-head constructions in which predicative elements acting as attributives, etc.,which shows that there is a conspicuous tendency from parataxis to hypotaxis of Chinese grammar in terms of corresponding relationships between phone and meaning.The fifth chapter "research of reference of nouns in Chinese of pre-Qin" mainly discusses the influences of reference of nouns on the properties of subject-predicate constructions in Chinese of pre-Qin and its development after Han.In Chinese of pre-Qin, the nominal elements in real utterances can be classified into specific ones and non-specific ones.The properties of subject-predicate constructions, namely, it being phrases or sentences, are determined completely by the reference of noun acting as subject:when the noun acting as subject is specific, the subject-predicate construction is a sentence; when the noun acting as subject is non-specific, the subject-predicate construction is a phrase. Moreover, this kind of subject-predicate phrases is the essential reasons for the creation of so-called box structures characteristic of Chinese. According to reference,the nouns can be classified into two kinds:attached ones and non-attached ones,the former of which usually act as subjects in capacity of the specific, the latter of which usually act as subjects in capacity of the non-specific. We consider that the doctrine of "nouns being the most important" is reasonable in terms of the great functions of reference of nouns in sentential constructions. The usages of references of nouns had been succeeded mostly after Han, which embodies the characteristics of typical parataxis grammar of Chinese in the ancient and the present.The sixth chapter "ellipses of subjects of Chinese in pre-Qin and their development" discusses the kinds, manners, conditions, influences of ellipses of subjects of Chinese in pre-Qin and their development after Han. In Chinese of pre-Qin, the ellipses of subjects can be classified from varied perspectives into different kinds:ellipses in reference to front element of text, those in reference to back elements of text, and those in reference to background knowledge; the ellipses of only on elements and those of more than one; continuous ellipses and discontinuous ones; ellipses in dialogues and those in narratives. When ellipses of subjects may reference to front or back elements, the corresponding elements may be the elements of sentences such as subjects, objects, attributives, concurrent elements, predicates, etc. or may be the elements of elements of sentences, all of which show that the manners of ellipses of subjects are manifold. Analyses show that the ellipses in reference to front elements of text are assisted usually by methods of vocabulary (containing reiterating and concurrence of vocabulary),in other words, the manners of vocabulary are the important conditions of ellipses of subjects in reference to front elements in text. Ellipses of subjects may combine the sentences in which the ellipses exit with those in which the elements corresponding ellipses into an integrity in form and a unit in meaning, which are the key factors of "combining sentences into paragraph" and "combining paragraphs into text". After Han, ellipses of subjects had decreased evidently, and appearing of them increased gradually, which shows that there is a developmental trend from parataxis to hypotaxis in Chinese grammar.The seventh chapter "from parataxis to hypotaxis:exploration of development of Chinese grammar" is in reality the conclusions of the dissertation. Through summarizing of the above discussions, the chapter exposes that there exits a developmental trend from parataxis to hypotaxis in Chinese grammar. In addition, we take other three grammatical phenomena as examples to expose the viewpoint:the problem of appearing and disappearing of preposition "yu (于)" in Chinese of pre-Qin, the constructions of "N+N" and phenomenon of nouns acting as exposing predicate in Chinese of per-Qin.