The Study Of Prepositions Of Han Dynasty Steles

Preposition is an important aspect of grammar and linguistic research. Han Dynasty steles are precious entity carriers of character, so its worth is obvious. Comprehensive research on the prepositions of Han Dynasty steles can make us better to know the features and characters of language of Han Dynasty, and By that we may get better acquainted with the development of grammar of that time. This article materials is based on the book of "Collation and Annotation of Steles of Han Wei Six Dynasties" and "Collected Works of Han Dynasty Steles", and we aim to review and research all the prepositions in Han Dynasty steles. The article is divided into five parts:The first chapter is an introduction. Firstly we introduce the value of this study, and then state the existing research results about prepositions of Han Dynasty, including the recording material, researching on grammar and vocabulary of Han Dynasty steles. Also it defines the scope of the material and the methods of research.The second chapter is about the type of prepositions of Han Dynasty steles. In this chapter, we confirm the definition and the scope of Han Dynasty steles first. Then we classify the prepositions into five types:location preposition, time preposition, object preposition, tool and method preposition and cause and purpose preposition. By analyzing the position and frequency of them, we find that those prepositions on Han Dynasty steles mainly are inheritance of pre-Qin period. New prepositions generated in Han Dynasty were also used in the steles, including "yuan ji(爰暨)"、"lin dang (临当)"、"zuo (坐)"and some others. As for usage quantity, there has an unbalanced development between each type of prepositions. Location preposition is mostly used, followed by object preposition. And the cause and purpose preposition is used least. As for the frequency, prepositions came from Pre-Qin Dynasty are still superior in numbers. Among them,"yi(以)" is used in the most, totally144times, and then "yu"(于/於). Also intersection is widely found in the usage function of these prepositions.The third chapter is about the comparative study between prepositions of Han Dynasty steles and of other materials on that time. The other materials mostly refer to Juyan Hanjian and "Lunhengd(论衡)". By comparing the prepositions and their frequency, we find that prepositions of Han Dynasty steles has following features:1. The number is small, the species is not rich.2. Prepositions of Han Dynasty steles did not advance with the time. For example,"cong(从)" is popular during the Han Dynasty as ground one preposition, while Han Dynasty steles are still using "zi(自)" which is inherited from archaic times.3. The prepositions on steles is much less susceptible to the language change and not many new prepositions exist. As tne transitional period of archaic times and ancient times, there should be a large of new prepositions and disyllabic function words. But in Han Dynasty steles, only "lindang(临当)" and "yuanji(爱暨)" can be considered as new emerged. The reason of all of the above may relate to the properties, content and authors of steles.The fourth chapter is about the grammar function of prepositions of Han Dynasty steles. This chapter includes two parts, one is about the composition of these prepositional structures and the other is the grammatical function of them. By research, we find that monosyllable objects are nouns by most, followed by pronouns. Few verbs and adjectives can also be found among them. Disyllable and multisyllable objects are attributes by most, followed by coordinative phrases. Besides that you can also see some S-V-O structures, subject-predicate structures and appositive structures. The quantity of preposition structures being adverbial modifier and complement are about equal. And location-introduction prepositions along with comparative object-introduction prepositions are often located after central word as complement. Time-introduction, reason&purpose-introduction and tool&method-introduction prepositions are often located before central word as adverbial.The fifth part is Appendix "The Summary Listing of Prepositions in Han Dynasty Steles". We clear up all the prepositions and provide their provenance, recording book and era information for helping readers to search.