Studies On The Valence Of The Verbs In Dunhuang Bianwen

The Bianwen of Dunhuang was initially discovered in the sutra depositary of Dunhuang Grottoes in the late 19th century. And Bianwen which is originated from the Sujiang prevalent in the temples and folk of Tang Dynasty mainly narrates Buddhist stories and historical events as well as folk legends by means of telling or singing. On account of the fact that target audience of Sujiang is the common people, Bianwen is approximate to the colloquialism of the period that marks the change of language system from classical Chinese to writings in the vernacular, which bridges the gap between the ancient and modern Chinese. And it is the reason why the Bianwen is studied in this thesis.Approach mainly employed in the thesis is the valence analysis of modern Chinese with studying the dominance of verbs exerting the nominal compositions as its focus. In the 1970s, valence analysis is firstly introduced by some language researchers to tackle language issues, which made it prevailing soon. Recently, researchers who applied the valence analysis to studying the language phenomena of the ancient Chinese have got a few achievements. In view of this, this thesis is on the one hand to get a deep understanding on language development of that transitional phase based on the valence analysis of the verbs in Dunhang Bianwen, and on the other hand to enrich the valence grammar and offer some available evidence for the future study by exploring the evolution law of Chinese verbs.The thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction which elaborates the research contents mainly focused, the methodology employed as well as the research purpose and significance. In chapter two, some relevant problems with verb valence in Dunhuang Bianwen are clarified from the aspects of the extraction of verb, the classification of verb, the classification of semantic role of verb argument, the determination of verb meaning, the sentence category and the determination of verb valence. In the third chapter, the verbs in Dunhuang Bianwen are firstly categorized as the action verb, the state verb, the mind verb, the linking verb as well as the causative verbs and then analyzed by valence respectively. Chapter four is the analysis on the evolution of verb valence. The last chapter is a conclusion, major findings concluded and the advantages and limits of the valence analysis presented.