Classical Chinese lexicon

Classical Chinese lexicon is the lexicon of Classical Chinese, a language register marked by a vocabulary that greatly differs from the lexicon of modern vernacular Chinese.

In terms of conciseness and compactness, Classical Chinese rarely uses words composed of two Chinese characters; nearly all words are of one syllable only. This stands directly in contrast with modern Chinese dialects, in which two-syllable words are extremely common. This phenomenon exists, in part, because polysyllabic words evolved in Chinese to disambiguate homophones that result from sound changes. This is similar to such phenomena in English as the pen–pin merger of many dialects in the American south: because the words "pin" and "pen" sound alike in such dialects of English, a certain degree of confusion can occur unless one adds qualifiers like "ink pen" and "stick pin." Similarly, Chinese has acquired many polysyllabic words in order to disambiguate monosyllabic words that sounded different in earlier forms of Chinese but identical in one region or another during later periods. Because Classical Chinese is based on the literary examples of ancient Chinese literature, it has almost none of the two-syllable words present in modern Chinese languages.

Classical Chinese has more pronouns compared to the modern vernacular. In particular, whereas Mandarin has one general character to refer to the first-person pronoun ("I"/"me"), Literary Chinese has several, many of which are used as part of honorific language (see Chinese honorifics), and several of which have different grammatical uses (first-person collective, first-person possessive, etc.).

In syntax, Classical Chinese is always ready to drop subjects, verbs, objects, etc. when their meaning is understood (pragmatically inferable). Also, words are not restrictively categorized into parts of speech: nouns used as verbs, adjectives used as nouns, and so on. There is no copula in Classical Chinese, "是" (pinyin: shì) is a copula in modern Chinese but in old Chinese it was originally a near demonstrative ("this"); the modern Chinese for "this" is "這" (pinyin: zhè).

Beyond grammar and vocabulary differences, Classical Chinese can be distinguished by literary and cultural differences: an effort to maintain parallelism and rhythm, even in prose works, and extensive use of literary and cultural allusions, thereby also contributing to brevity.

The Muslim Hui people developed Jingtang Jiaoyu for representing Arabic sounds with Chinese characters. Classical Chinese has had influence of Jingtang Jiaoyu. Rather than using Standard Chinese grammar, they use the grammar of their dialect and Classical Chinese to read the Arabic sounds out loud. The Classical Chinese word order is often the reverse of Mandarin; for example, Mandarin 饒恕 (pinyin: ráoshù, "forgive") is Classical 恕饒 (pinyin: shùráo).[1]

Many final particles (Chinese: 歇語字; pinyin: xiēyǔzì; Wade–Giles: hsieh1-yü3-tzu4) and[2] interrogative particles are found in Literary Chinese.[3]

Function words


Usage Example Translation
而

1. Used as a conjunction, which is equivalent to "also" 「又」, "and" 「而且」, "but" 「卻」, "if" 「如果」, and "followed by" 「接著」 學而時習之，不亦悅乎。 (From Analects by Confucius and his disciples)
Learn and practice often (what you have learned), is it not a pleasure?
2. Used as a pronoun, which is equivalent to "your" 「你的」
3. An alternative for "can" 「能」
何

 1. Used as Pronouns, often behind the modal particles 「哉」、「也」  
2. Used as "Why" 「為什麼」, "where" 「哪裡」, "what" 「什麼」
3. Used as an adverb, or used in the first sentence before the verb, that question can be translated as "how" 「怎麼」
乎

 1. Used as a Preposition, which is equivalent to the word 「於」  
2. The modal particle to express doubt, praise, surprise, or to highlight the word in front
3. To express a question, when placed at the end of a phrase 人不知而不慍，不亦君子乎。 Others fail to understand you, but you are not angered, is this not the mark of a gentleman?
乃

 1. Used as a Preposition, which is equivalent to the word 「於」  
2. The modal particle to express doubt, praise, surprise, or to highlight the word in front
3. To express a question, when placed at the end of a phrase
尔

 1. As "then", "indeed", "after all", or "namely"  乃懼，復造善脈者診之。(From Chapter 23 of Volume 2 of Pu Songling's 聊齋志異)
 Then he got scared, and found someone who was good at pulse-reading to diagnose it.
2. As a pronoun, "you", "your"
爲

 1. Used as a preposition, that the object, which is equivalent to "substitute for", "give", "once upon a time", "opposed", "with", "with regards to"  
2. Used as a preposition, pointed out that the reason for the equivalent of "because"
3. Used as a preposition, that the passive, which is equivalent to "be"
4. Used as a verb, which is equivalent to "make", "for", "become"
5. Used as a preposition, which is equivalent to "at", "When"
6. Used as a modal particle, often with the pronouns 「何」、「焉」
焉

 1. The word used as a tone for the end of the sentence, which is equivalent to 「啊」、「呢」  生而有疾惡焉，順是，故殘賊生而忠信亡焉。
 (Human beings) were born with hatred; (because) people followed (it), cruelty and brutality grew (within them), and faithfulness died out (end of sentence).
2. For the tone of the words express a standstill for the sentence
3. Used as a pronoun, which is equivalent to "he", "them", "it", "here" and "where"
4. Used as pronouns, equivalent to 「豈」 (how/what), 「如何」 (what)
以

 1. Used as a preposition to indicate reason, equivalent to "because" and "owing to"  故常無欲，以觀其妙。(Laozi)
 Therefore (people) often keep themselves void of desire, in order to see the secret of it (life).
2. Used as a preposition to indicate means, equivalent to 「用」、「將」、「拿」
3. Used as a preposition to introduce action, where activity takes place within a certain period and location, equivalent to "at", "from"
4. Used as a conjunction - to indicate juxtaposition, a linked relationship, objective, or causality.


其

 Used as a pronoun. Can be used as a third person pronoun ("him" 「他」, "his" 「他的」, "they" 「他們」, or "their" 「他們的」), objective pronoun ("it" 「它」, "its" 「它的」, "those" 「它們」, the possessive of "those" 「它們的」, or "one of" 「其中」) or demonstrative pronoun ("this" 「這」/「這個」, "these" 「這些」, "that" 「那」/「那個」, "those" 「那些」). Also can be used to distinguish tone, such as words like "approximately" 「大概」, "may" 「也許」, "I think" 「恐怕」, "could" 「還能」, "how" 「怎麼」 or "could it be that" 「難道」. To indicate something in first person, 「己」 is used, for example, 「己身也」.
且

 "And", "Furthermore"  
若 "If", "Assuming that" 夕惕若厲。 Being careful everyday as if there were dangers.
所 "That which"
也 Used at the end of the sentence to provide a positive, emphasizing or doubtful tone. If used within the sentence, indicates a pause to delay the mood. 其西有大山，天下至高者也。 In the west of it there is a large mountain, (which is) the tallest under heaven (on Earth).
因 "Because"
于 Used as a preposition for place, reason; expression of action behaviour and the introduction of premises, time, motion, target, location, relationship between people, introduction to the object of comparison or analogy.
與 "and", "with", "to", "for", "give"
則 Used as a conjunction - translated as "just", "still, but...", "however", "in that case"
者 Particle which refers to people, objects, times, locations, etc. When placed after the subject, indicates a slight pause, or expresses determination.
之 Possessive marker ('s) for personal pronouns. Use similar or equivalent to modern 的. 孫子曰：兵者，國之大事，死生之地，存亡之道，不可不察也。 (From The Art of War, by Sun Zi) Sun Zi says: Of war, life-and-death's field, survival-and-extinction's way, should not be unexamined.
曰 Speech indicator, similar to "says" or "said". 翁笑曰：「平昔不相往還，何由遺魂吾家？」 The old man laughed and said, "In normal days we don't have much of a relation, why would you want to call back the dead's soul in my house?"
亦 Also; too.
故 Therefore, Cause, Reason, Happening, Instance 何以故？ Why is this? (lit. "What caused this?")

Note that for the descriptions provided above, English equivalents are provided in double quotation marks (""), while equivalents in vernacular Chinese are provided in hooked brackets (「」).

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ Maris Boyd Gillette (2000). Between Mecca and Beijing: modernization and consumption among urban Chinese Muslims. Stanford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 0-8047-3694-4. Retrieved 2010-11-28.
  2. ↑ J. J. Brandt (1936). Introduction to literary Chinese (2 ed.). H. Vetch. p. 169. Retrieved 10 February 2012. PART III GRAMMATICAL SECTION THE FINAL PARTICLES (歇語字 hsieh1-yü3-tzu4) The Wenli-style abounds with so called final particles. These particles(the University of Michigan)
  3. ↑ J. J. Brandt (1936). Introduction to literary Chinese (2 ed.). H. Vetch. p. 184. Retrieved 10 February 2012. PART III GRAMMATICAL SECTION THE INTERROGATIVE PARTICLES The Wen-li style particularly abounds with the interrogative particles.(the University of Michigan)

Further reading

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: zh:文言
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Classical Chinese