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Negation in Archaic Chinese

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

W. A. C. H. Dobson
W. A. C. H. Dobson*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

The late George A. Kennedy, in his ‘Negatives in Classical Chinese’, notes that there are some sixteen forms of the negative 'all loosely denned as “no, not”', and sets out to discover if some criterion other than 'meaning' can provide a tighter classification and perhaps an explanation for this seemingly random and interchangeable repertory of negatives in Classical Chinese.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 42 , Issue 2: April-June , June 1966 , pp. 278 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © 1966 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 See Tien-yi Li (ed.), Selected works of George A. Kennedy 119–34 (New Haven, 1964).

2 It is useful to distinguish three periods within Archaic Chinese (11th century to 3rd century b.c.), namely Early Archaic, Middle Archaic, and Late Archaic, and to treat Han texts as either Han Literary Chinese or Han Classical Chinese. Descriptions of Archaic Chinese which are based on this classification are W. A. C. H. Dobson, Early Archaic Chinese: A descriptive grammar (Toronto, 1962) ; ‘Studies in Middle Archaic Chinese : The Spring and Autumn Annals’, T'oung Pao 50.1–28 (1963); and Late Archaic Chinese: A grammatical study (Toronto, 1959). Historical studies of Archaic Chinese based on this periodization are W. A. C. H. Dobson, ‘Towards a historical treatment of the grammar of Archaic Chinese, i. EAC yueh becomes LAC chi’, Harvard journal of Asiatic studies 23.5–18 (1961), and ‘Linguistic features which contrast in Early and Late Archaic Chinese’, Proceedings of the XXVth International Congress of Orientalists 5.96–101 (Moscow, 1963).

3 For a more detailed account of this conception of syntax, see the ‘introductions’ to the works mentioned above and in addition ‘Word classes or distributional classes in Archaic Chinese’, in L'hommage à Monsieur Demiéville (Paris, 1966).

4 A reading preceded by an asterisk is the reconstruction of the pronunciation in Archaic Chinese of B. Karlgren, Grammata serica recensa (Stockholm, 1957). All other romanization is given in the G. R. system as described in W. Simon, Chinese-English dictionary (London, 1947).

5 Bu in G. R. transcription is buh before first-, second-, and third-tone words and bwu before fourth-tone.

6 See W. A. C. H. Dobson, ‘Studies in the grammar of Early Archaic Chinese, i. The Particle wei’, T'oung Pao 46.339–68 (1958).

7 See Hwang Jiing-shin, ‘Chyn Harm yii-chyan Guu-hann-yeu jong de Foou-dinq-tsyr “Fwu”, “Bu” Yan-jiou’, Yeu-yan Yan-jiou 3.1–24 (1958).

8 See Ding Sheng-shuh, ‘Shyh foou-dinq tsyr “Fwu”, “Bu”‘, Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology (Academia Sinica) Suppl. 1935.967–96.

9 If analysis is pursued to the lower level, the modals and copula form privatives in a process of word derivation which is essentially the reduction by one level of forms already dealt with. For example bwu-shinn ‘faithlessness’ in Tzyy-muu jy bwu shinn, literally ‘the not-being-faithful of Tzu Mu’ i.e. ‘Tzu Mu's faithlessness’ (Tso Chuan) and fei-yih ‘unjust’ in Ru chih chyi fei-yih, literally ‘if [you]/know of/its/is-not/just’ i.e. ‘If you know it is unjust’ (Mencius).

10 See W. A. C. H. Dobson, ‘Linguistic evidence and the dating of the Book of Songs’, T'oung Pao 51.322–34 (1964), and ‘Studies in the grammar of Early Archaic Chinese, iii. The word yan’, T'oung Pao 51.281–93 (1964).

11 For a detailed study of the language of the Late Han period, see W. A. C. H. Dobson, Late Han Chinese: The Archaic-Han shift (Toronto, 1964).