Summary Details
| Query: |
Chinese Historical Syntax
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| Author: | Keith Slater | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Historical Linguistics
Syntax |
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| Language Family: |
Chinese Subgroup
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| Summary: |
Regarding query: http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2294.html#1
Thanks to those who answered my query (LinguistList 16.2294) about the diachronic stability of literary Chinese grammar. Here is a summary of the responses: QUESTION: Is there any sort of relative stability in classical literary Chinese (lexically, syntactically, or general stylistics). Is there a 600 year period from c.400 BC to c.1912 which exhibits this type of stability? ANSWERS: The following grammars and textbooks on ''Old Chinese'' would be a good starting point (there are others which would also be helpful): W.A.C.H. Dobson - Early Archaic Chinese W.A.C.H. Dobson - Late Archaic Chinese Edwin G. Pulleyblank - Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar Ulrich Unger - Einf��hrung in das Klassische Chinesisch The introductory chapters of these (and other) works all present some justification as to why language periods like ''Classical Chinese'' or ''Late Archaic Chinese'' have been established and how they can be distinguished from earlier or later periods. Needless to say, different authors put the borderline(s) at different places in time. With regard to ''literary'' stability, the phenomenon of ''Literary Chinese'' might be of interest. The Wikipedia entry on ''Classical Chinese'' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Chinese) has some very good remarks on this particular variety of Chinese which played a role similar to that of Latin in Europe during the Middle Ages. Richard Kunst wrote a paper 30 years or so ago, ''Literary Chinese Viewed in the Light of Literary Latin.'' This might have something relevant to the topic of stability and change in literary Chinese: http://www.humancomp.org/ftp/yijing/litchinese_in_light_of_litlatin.html (HTML, ca. 500KB) http://www.humancomp.org/ftp/yijing/litchinese_in_light_of_litlatin.pdf (Adobe Acrobat PDF, ca. 13655KB) |
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| LL Issue: | 16.2536 | |
| Date Posted: | 01-Sep-2005 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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