| Chinese translated Buddhist sutras are Buddhist scriptures originally written in Sanskrit mainly,or the other languages of ancient India and the regions to the west of the Chinese territories,before they were translated into Chinese in the process of circulation.The language of middle Chinese translated sutras is intermingled with both native and non-native Chinese elements,and therefore it is regarded as"Buddhist hybrid Chinese" in nature.Since it is a special variation of Middle Chinese with prominent characteristics of colloquialism,Buddhist hybrid Chinese has perpetually been highly valued by the academic community.At present,nonetheless,solely few scholars have carried out a detailed investigation of pragmatic markers in middle Chinese translated sutras.The dissertation has selected three exceedingly prevalent and typical pragmatic markers,"Fu Ci","Er Shi" and "Yun He" from middle Chinese translated Buddhist sutras,as points of penetration for case analysis.Focusing as the main line on the pragmatical replication of Buddhist hybrid Chinese from the source language of Buddhist scriptures,the methods of conversation analysis（historical discourse analysis）,discourse analysis and analysis for the constructionized context are thus applied by the dissertation to the study of Sanskrit-Chinese parallel corpora so as to serve the purpose of examining the formation,usage and influence of the three pragmatic markers above.The dissertation includes four chapters in total.The first chapter is an introduction part for expounding on the significance of topic selection,the literature review in regard to the linguistic researches on middle Chinese translated Buddhist sutras,the definition coupled with characteristics of pragmatic markers,the general research strategy,a series of functional linguistic theories involved in the dissertation,and the selection of various research materials.The second chapter is an investigation of replicative pragmatic markers "Fu Ci" and "Er Shi" in Chinese translated Buddhist sutras.Specifically,their formation mechanisms by the Chinese-foreign language translation are expounded before the method of discourse analysis,which was proposed by systemic functional linguistics,is utilized to explore the shaping effect on their pragmatical functions by speech or narrative discourses in the original Buddhist scriptures;and eventually,the acceptability of these two pragmatic markers in medieval native Chinese is discussed through a comparison of their distribution and usage in both native Chinese literature and Chinese translated Buddhist sutras.The third chapter is an examination of the inheritive pragmatic marker "Yun He" in Chinese translated sutras.In detail,the first step is to seek out the very functional basis for its later transformation into a pragmatic marker by combing its sense categories in the native Sinitic language during the pre-Qin period and Han dynasty;and thereafter various functional categories of "Yun He" are investigated through the use of Sanskrit-Chinese parallel corpora in the incipient version of the translated Buddhist sutra Astasāhasrikā Praj?āpāramitā,in order to facilitate the work to find a certain usage capable to function as a pragmatic marker;and afterwards,for the purpose of revealing the linguistic environment in which its particular functional characteristics came into being,the methods of both conversation analysis（historical discourse analysis）and analysis for the constructionized context,which were respectively developed by emergent grammar and construction grammar,are utilized to discuss how "Yun He"’s pragmatical functions were shaped in the communicative interaction environment and constructionized context in middle Chinese translated sutras;and finally,it is essential to compare the pragmatic marker "Yun He"’s usages and functions in middle Chinese translated sutras and native Chinese literature of the same period so that it can become more available to assess the acceptability of this pragmatic marker in the native Sinitic language.The fourth chapter is the concluding part,which summarizes systematically the essential findings of the dissertation before numerating both the contributions,or innovation points,and flaws in the research.Generally speaking,the research in the dissertation has drawn these conclusions below:（1）In the respect of formation,the formation mechanism of the replicative pragmatic markers "Fu Ci" and "Er Shi" differentiates from that of the inheritive pragmatic marker "Yun He",in that the former two are coinages produced due to the contact between Chinese-foreign language translation,while the latter’s existence as a fixed form was witnessed before the emergence of Buddhist hybrid Chinese,of which the original form and functional basis were inherited by middle Chinese translated sutras;（2）From the perspective of usage,"Fu Ci" and "Ershi" simply replicated their discourse functions from their source programs in the source language of Buddhist scriptures;by contrast "Yun He" not only inherited its original function,but also replicated other unique interpersonal functions from the conversation environment offered by original Buddhist scriptures;（3）From the perspective of influence,the three pragmatic markers’ pragmatical replication from original Buddhist scriptures was impeded to varying degrees when it diffused to the medieval native Chinese,in which these pragmatic markers were all subject to an exceedingly low acceptability,and the essential reason is that they were incapable to share a structural compatibility with the native Sinitic language,and meanwhile the recipient language also had no need of filling in the functional vacancy through pragmatical loan. |
