| Regarding the structure,the adjectives in Mencius and the inner chapters of Chuang-Tzu (hereinafter referred to as "the inner chapters")equally include three types: monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic adjectives, and within which, the monosyllables prevail the other two types (the quantity percentage of the monosyllabic adjectives in Mencius is approximately 69.5% and that in "the inner chapters" is approximately 60.7%). Within the disyllabic adjectives in the two books,the attached form is the most commonly used one-- the quantity percentage of the attached form in all adjectives of the entire book is approximately 8.7% in Mencius VS approximately 16.7% in "the inner chapters". Besides the attached form, there are also other four types in both books: overlapped form, compound form, alliterative two-syllable terms and reduplicated form. And within which, the percentage of alliterative two-syllable terms in "the inner chapters" (approximately 7.1%) is evidently higher than that in Mencius (approximately 2.2%) . The trisyllabic adjectives in the two books include only one type: the attached form, however, the percentages are different (approximately 7.6% in Mencius while 3.3% in "the inner chapters"). Within the polysyllabic adjectives in both books, the type that with the suffix "?(Ran)" is the most commonly used type. Besides the ones that with the suffix "?(Ran)",there are also adjectives with the suffixes "?(Yan)" or "?(Hu)" in both books. However, there is difference between the two books—there are no adjectives with the suffix“?(Ruo)" in Mecius while no that with the suffixes "?(Er)" or "?(Ru)" in "the inner chapters". That the suffix "?(Ru)" and "?(Ruo)" are dialectal variants of the same linguistic unit should be the reason to account for the difference.As for grammatical functions, the three types of adjectives in both books are evidently different. The major syntactic functions of the qualitative adjectives in both books are acting as predicates and attributes and within which,acting as predicates is with much higher mark rate than that acting as attributes. Besides the two functions,the qualitative adjectives can also act as objects and subjects in the two books. And"the adverbial-capable" adjectives in the qualitative adjectives can also act as adverbial modifiers. When acting as a predicate, a qualitative adjective can accept a degree adverb in front of it and a prepositional phrase behind it. And a comparative sentence is usually achieved by adding the prepositional phrase. The adjective predicate can also take a modal particle,such as"?(Yi)","?(Ye)","?(Hu)" or "(?Zai)". Besides the similarity stated above, the qualitative adjectives in the two books also have something different: first, the degree adverb in front of the adjective is usually “?(Zhi)", "?(Yi)","?(Yu)" or "?(Zi)" while that is mainly "?(Shen)"in the same position in "the inner chapters"; Second, there is no modal particle" ?(Ye)"in Mencius While it is commonly used in "the inner chapters". This should be attributed to dialectal variety. When acting as an attribute modifier in front of a noun(nominal phrase) or"?(Zhe)",the qualitative adjective can be used in its original form (without any other unit added to it) in most cases(about 90%).The major syntactic functions of the state adjectives in both books are serving as predicates and adverbial modifiers. The mark rate of the state adjectives falls remarkably (approximately 30%) compared to that of the qualitative adjectives served as predicates in both books. Besides, the state adjectives can also serve as objects,attributes and subjects in some cases in the two books. When serving as a predicate, a qualitative adjective cannot accept a degree adverb in front of it. However, it can accept some adverb of other types (such as "?(Yi)")in front of it in both books and the adverb of other types can also be "?(Du)" or "?(You)" in "the inner chapters".Bedsides, a state adjective cannot accept a prepositional phrase behind to constitute a comparative sentence. However,a modal particle (i.e. "?(Yi)" or "?(Hu)")behind it can be acceptable. A qualitative adjective can directly modify a verb or a verb that already have a adverbial modifier with the form of adding a function word "?(Er)" between the qualitative adjective and the linguistic unit it modified.Adding a function word "?(Er)" is not a must and that depends on the rhythm condition. When modifying a noun(nominal phrase) as an attribute, the qualitative adjective usually needs to be with a function word "?(Zhi)",However,it doesn't need the function word "?(Zhi)" when modifying "?(Zhe)".The change adjectives are rare in both books and they can only act as predicates with a mark rate of 100%. The combination with other words and phrases mainly involves taking time adverbs in front of them and modal words behind them. There are only 5 change adjectives (9 cases in total) in Mencius. And they can accept time adverbs ("?(Ji)","?(Wei)" or "?(Chang)")in front of them and the modal words(i.e. "?(Yi)")behind them. There are only 2 change adjectives (3 cases in total) in"the inner chapters. And there is not one case that with a time adverb but there are cases with a modal word "?(Yi)" behind the change adjectives.Besides, the cases of flexibility in parts of speech in the two books mainly involve the qualitative adjectives. And the case percentage of flexibility in parts of speech in qualitative adjectives in Mencius is approximately 21.5% and that percentage is approximately 19.3% in "the inner chapters". As for the multiple class membership (involving the verb, noun or adverb) in both books, it only appears in the qualitative adjectives. There are 14 qualitative adjectives that belong to other part-of speech at the same time and that number is 11 in "the inner chapters".After making a comprehensive survey on Mencius and "the inner chapters" of Chuang-Tzu, 6 special adjectives("?(Tong)","?(Yi)","?(Duo)","?(Shao)","?(Gua)","?(Zhong)")are found to be worthy of case studies. Besides a thorough study of their grammatical functions, they are also taken as examples to a rather and deep and detailed discussion on the identifying of adjectives - distinguishing the adjectives from other parts-of-speech (especially from the verbs). |
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