The Classification And Research Of Pivotal Sentences In Oracle Inscriptions

With the development of grammar research in Oracle Bone Inscriptions,the systematic arrangement and research of all kinds of sentence patterns in Oracle bone inscriptions are also gradually carried out.As a special sentence pattern used up to now,the pivotal sentence in Oracle bone inscriptions has become one of the important issues in Oracle Bone Inscriptions’ grammar research because of its large number and complex sentence pattern changes.This paper is a comprehensive classification and study of the pivotal sentences in the existing Oracle bone inscriptions.In this paper,the classification and research of the pivotal sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions are mainly carried out from two aspects: in the aspect of material arrangement,the relevant viewpoints of previous scholars are mainly reviewed,the scope of the pivotal sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions is determined,and the types and sentence patterns of the pivotal sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions are re-summarized.In terms of specific research,the first is the study on the types of pivotal sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions,and the characteristics of different types of pivotal sentences in the distribution of groups and the use of sentence patterns are investigated;The second is about the study of the sentence pattern of pivotal sentence in Oracle bone inscriptions,and investigates the overall use of the sentence pattern of pivotal sentence in Oracle bone inscriptions in Yin and Shang Dynasties.In this paper,the scope of pivotal sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions is defined,and on this basis,the Oracle materials are collected and sorted out.After removing residual words and Oracle inscriptions with unclear meaning,a total of 2125 cases of Oracle inscriptions with pivotal sentences were obtained.According to the materials of Oracle bone inscriptions,five types of Oracle bone inscriptions and sentence patterns are summarized: imperative sentence,cooperative sentence,solicitation sentence,sentences that contain the word “有” and sentences that contain the word “速”,and four types of Oracle bone inscriptions and sentence patterns: general sentence,complex sentence,ellipsis and preposition.Complex pivotal sentences can be divided into pivotal sentences,pivotal sentences with continuous predicates,pivotal sentences with double objects and pivotal sentences with parallel words.According to the presence or absence of subjects,the sentence patterns with pivotal sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions can be further divided into 24 categories.Based on the above materials,this paper specifically investigates the distribution of groups and the use of sentence patterns in five categories of pivotal sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions.Among them,the classification is mainly based on Li Xueqin and Peng Yushang’s Study on the Staging of Oracle Bones in Yin Ruins,Huang Tianshu’s Classification and Dating of Oracle Inscriptions in Yin Ruins,and Ms.Yang Yuyan’s General Table of Classification of Oracle Bone Inscriptions Collections.By analyzing the distribution of their groups,it can be inferred that different divination subjects or Zhen ren groups have a tendency to choose imperative verbs;By analyzing the use of sentence patterns,it can be seen that in the same type of pivotal sentences,several verbs with similar meanings have differences in the specific use of sentence patterns.Through the tabular form,this paper explains the composition looming situation of 24 kinds of pivotal sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions,and lists 168 kinds of pivotal sentence patterns in Oracle bone inscriptions.Through the analysis,we can see that the sentence patterns of the pivotal sentence in Oracle bone inscriptions are complex and changeable,but they have certain regularity,and each pivotal sentence pattern is composed of basic components and looming components.Although the complex sentences in Oracle bone inscriptions are mainly simple in structure,complex structures have also appeared in large numbers,which shows that the language system in Yin and Shang Dynasties has developed quite maturely.