Language and Writing

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521470308.004

2 - Language and Writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Michael Loewe and

Edward L. Shaughnessy

William Boltz

Show author details

Michael Loewe: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Edward L. Shaughnessy: Affiliation:
University of Chicago
William Boltz: Affiliation:
University of Washington

Book contents

Get access

Summary

No one needs to be persuaded that language plays a fundamental part in any society’s everyday activities and constitutes one of the most durable fibers in the tapestry of human history. Indeed, language is a defining feature of our species. The present chapter describes the structure, history, and setting of the Chinese language, as well as the first appearance and subsequent development of its script, over the millennium from 1200 B.C., the time of the earliest known written record of Chinese, down to the beginning of the imperial era, ca. 200 B.C. While this is primarily a linguistically slanted presentation, it is important to remain aware of the extent to which language history is intertwined with fundamental issues of cultural history in general. The historian may see in language history a rich record of the lives of real people played out in a real world setting and may find clues even to a people’s prehistory. These kinds of broad historical considerations depend on the narrower work of the linguist.

For the linguist, language history is the sum of a painstakingly assembled collection of internal analyses of speech forms and phonetic formulas. The historical linguist is concerned with the evolution of sounds, words, and structures of language, and with linguistic affinities per se. The fact that the linguist’s work is accomplished with little reference to the associated nonlinguistic culture enables the linguist to make an especially valuable contribution to the overall historical study of a people by providing a body of evidence largely independent of the historian’s other sources.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Ancient China
From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC
, pp. 74 - 123

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521470308.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bailey, H. W. “Recent Work in ‘Tocharian.’” Transactions of the Philological Society 1947:.Google Scholar

Bartoli, Matteo. Saggi di linguistica spaziale. Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier, 1945.

Baxter, William H. “Zhou and Han Phonology in the Shijing” In Studies in the Historical Phonology of Asian Languages, ed. Boltz, William G. and Shapiro, Michael C.. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, series 4: Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, no. 77. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1991.Google Scholar

Baxter, William H. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Trends in Linguistics: Notes and Monographs, no. 64. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1992.

Bodman, Nicholas C. “Proto-Chinese and Sino-Tibetan: Data Towards Establishing the Nature of the Relationship.” In Contributions to Historical Linguistics. Cornell Linguistic Contributions, III, ed. Coetsem, Frans and Waugh, Linda R.. Leiden: Brill, 1980.Google Scholar

Boltz, William G. “East Asian Writing Systems (Introduction).” In The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Daniels, Peter T. and Bright, William. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar

Boltz, William G. “Notes on the Reconstruction of Old Chinese.” Oriens Extremus 36, 2 (1993):.Google Scholar

Boltz, William G. The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System. American Oriental Series, vol. 78. New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1994.

Bonfante, G., and Sebeok, Thomas. “Linguistics and the Age and Area Hypothesis.” American Anthropologist 46 (1944):.Google Scholar

Boodberg, Peter A. “Marginalia to the Histories of the Northern Dynasties.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 4 (1939):.Google Scholar

Boodberg, Peter A. “Some Proleptical Remarks on the Evolution of Archaic Chinese.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 2 (1937):.Google Scholar

Chavannes, E. “Les livres chinois avant l’invention du papier.” Journal asiatique series 10, 5 (1905):.Google Scholar

Coblin, W. South. A Sinologist’s Handlist of Sino-Tibetan Lexical Comparisons. Monumenta Serica monograph series 18. Nettetal: Steyler, 1986.

Downer, Gordon B. “Derivation by Tone Change in Classical Chinese.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 22 (1959):.Google Scholar

Drews, Robert. The Coming of the Greeks. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Elman, Benjamin. From Philosophy to Philology. Harvard East Asian Monographs, no. 110. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1984.

Graham, A. C. Later Mohist Logic, Ethics, and Science. Hong Kong: Chinese University; and London: University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1978.

Hadingham, Evan. “The Mummies of Xinjiang.” Discover, April 1994.Google Scholar

Henning, W. B. “Argi and the ‘Tocharians.’” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 9, 3 (1938):.Google Scholar

Hopkirk, Peter. Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. London: John Murray, 1980.

Hulsewé, A. F. P. “Weights and Measures in Ch’in Law.” In State ȧnd Law in East Asia: Festschrift Karl Bünger, ed. Eikemeier, D. and Franke, Herbert. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1981.Google Scholar

Ji, Xianlin Dunhuang Tulufan Tuhuoluo yu yanjiu daolun. Dunhuangxue daolun congkan, no. 6, ed. Lin Congming, Taibei: Xinwenfeng, 1993.

Karlgren, Bernhard, Analytic Dictionary of Chienese and Sino Japanese (Paris: Librarie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1923) 2;

Keightley, David N. Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. (2nd printing, with minor revisions, 1985.)

Knoblock, John H. Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works. 3 vols. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, vol. 1, 1988; vol. 2, 1990; vol. 3, 1994.

Le Blanc, Charles. Tzu, Huai-nan: Philosophical Synthesis in Early Han Thought: The Idea of Resonance (Kan-ying), with a Translation and Analysis of Chapter Six. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1985.

Mair, Victor H. “Mummies of the Tarim Basin.” Archaeology March–April, 1995.Google Scholar

Makeham, John. Name and Actuality in Early Chinese Thought. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.

Mallory, J. P. In Search of the Indo-Europeans. London: Thames & Hudson, 1989.

Mawangdui Han mu bo shu. Vol. 1, ed. Wenwu, Guojia ju guwenxian yanjiushi. Beijing: Wenwu, 1980; Vol. 3, ed. Han, Mawangdui mu boshu zhengli xiaozu. Beijing: Wenwu, 1983; Vol. 4, 1985.

Mei, Tsu-lin and Norman, Jerry. “The Austroasiatics in Ancient South China: Some Lexical Evidence.” Monumenta Serica 32 (1976):.Google Scholar

Miller, Roy A. “The Far East.” In Current Trends in Linguistics, vol. 13, pt. 2, “Historiography of Linguistics,” ed. Sebeok, Thomas. The Hague: Mouton, 1975.Google Scholar

Norman, Jerry. “Pharyngealization in Early Chinese.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 114, 3 (1994):.Google Scholar

Norman, Jerry. Chinese. Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Piggott, Stuart. “Chariots in the Caucasus and in China.” Antiquity 48 (1974):.Google Scholar

Postgate, Nicholas, Wang, Tao, and Wilkinson, Toby. “The Evidence for Early Writing: Utilitarian or Ceremonial?” Antiquity 69 (1995):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “Ablaut and Initial Voicing in Old Chinese Morphology: *a as an Infix and Prefix.” Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Sinology, Section on Linguistics and Paleography. Taibei: Academia Sinica, 1989.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “An Interpretation of the Vowel Systems of Old Chinese and Written Burmese.” Asia Major, n.s., 21 (1963):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “Chinese and Indo-Europeans.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (April 1966):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “Close/Open Ablaut in Sino-Tibetan.” Lingua 14 (1965):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “European Studies on Chinese Phonology, the First Phase.” In Europe Studies China: Papers from an International Conference on the History of European Sinology, ed. Wilson, Ming and Cayley, John. London: Han-shan Tang, 1995.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “Some New Hypotheses Concerning Word Families in Chinese.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1 (1973):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “The Ganzhi as Phonograms and Their Application to the Calendar.” Early China 16 (1991):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “The Locative Particles yu, yu and hu.” JOAS 106 (1986):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “The Old Chinese Origin of Type A and B Syllables.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics 22 (1994):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “The Typology of Indo-European.” Journal of Indo-European Studies 21 (1993):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “Why Tocharians?” Journal of Indo-European Studies 23 (1995):.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. “Zou and Lu and the Sinification of Shandong.” In Chinese Language, Thought and Culture: Nivison and His Critics, ed. Ivanhoe, P.. La Salle, Ill: Open Court, 1996.Google Scholar

Pulleyblank, E. G. Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1991.

Pulleyblank, E. G. Middle Chinese: A Study in Historical Phonobgy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984.

Qiu, Xigui. “Hanzi xingcheng wenti de chubu tansuo” Zhongguo yuwen 1978. 3:.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.