"han Feizi" Syntactic Research

Hanfeizi, which was created at the end of the late Warring States Period, is a historical record of that time's Chinese language. This thesis is a syntactic study on a specific book, taking the syntax of Hanfeizi as an object of study. The synchronic exploration is supplemented by a diachronic investigation. Focused on simple and complex constructions in Hanfeizi,, the paper attempts to figure out syntactic features of it.The paper contains four chapters.Chapter one introduces Hanfeizi and its author. Methods and theories used in the study as well as purpose of the research are made clear. Besides, this chapter has a review of past research.Chapter two exemplifies sorts of constructions and their components. Features of Chinese language of that period are analyzed.Chapter three studies four subjects of syntactic constructions in Hanfeizi, exploring the trend of their development. The four subjects discussed are:"jin" in Hanfeizi, preposition stranding of "yi",special verb-object relations and passive constructions in Hanfeizi.By analyzing synchronic language material of "jin",the first subject study traces the grammaticalization of it. In the second part, Preposition stranding of "yi" is classified into three types, and motives behind such phenomenon are explored from the perspective of cognition. The third subject study is characterized by analysis and classification of special verb-object relations found in Hanfeizi, The final part of the chapter is an investigation of passive constructions used in the book. After the analysis, views on this subject are supplemented and revised.Chapter four reviews the whole paper and reaches a conclusion:at the time when the book was created, Chinese language had already developed a relatively matured grammar system. Roughly speaking, the grammar system is complete at that time and new syntactic features appeared.