One result of this oversight is that most research has focussed on
the use and evolution of specific linking words (Xu 1981, Liu 1989,
among others). Although such studies have their value, they can be
misleading. All have presupposed that coordination by conjunction,
whatever the conjunction token is, has been the basic device used
througiout the history of the Chinese language.
Controversy has also arisen concerning the distinction between
conjunctions and prepositions in Ancient Chinese. Wang Li (1954,
1958), for example, claims that no such distinction can be made and uses
the term lianjie ci 聯結詞 `linking word' to label both. A similar
treatanent is found in Zhan (1993) where the term guanxi ci關系詞
`relation word' is used for the two lexical categories in Shishuo Xinyu
世說新語. On the other hand, Xu (1981) argues that the functions
of ji 及 as a conjunction and yu 与 as both a conjunction and a
preposition are fairly clear both before and after Qin 秦, therefore
conjunctions and prepositions are distinct in Chinese
Recent advances in discourse study have revealed many important
universal properties related to the structure of coordination. Mithun
(1988), for example, has found that while intonational linking of
concepts is universal in spoken discourse, the grammaticization of
coordination with overt linking words is not. Haiman (1983) points out
the universality of iconic motivation in the structure of language,
including coordination, noting specifically that as the linguistic distance
between X and Y is reduced by coordination reduction, the conceptual
distance between them is also reduced. Conceptions along this line
provide useftil tools for the study of historical syntax.
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My chief interest in this paper is to profile the development of NP
coordination from Early Medieval Chinese to Late Medieval Chinese.
Attention is particularly paid to the process of grammaticization of
syntactic categories over time. A functional explanation is attempted to
account for the grammar of NP coordination in Medieval Chinese.
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They may be preverbal, where the coordinate NPs represent agents of the verb.
(1) 俄而 王齊 王睹 來 (雅量)
soon Wang Qi Wang Du come
"Soon Wang Qi and Wang Du came".5
They may be postverbal, where the coordinate NPs represent patients.
(2) 汯(無“水”邊)后看老庄。 (文學)
Hong later read Laozi Zhuangzi
"Later, Hong read Laozi and Zhuangzi.
They may be pivotal, where the NPs function both as the patients of the previous verb and the agents of the following verb.
(3) 王中郎令伏玄度習鑿齒論
Wang Zhonglang ask Fu Xuandu Xi Zuochi talk
青楚人物。(言語)
Qing Chu figure-thing
"Wang Thonglang asked Fu Xuandu and Xi Zuochi to talk about local people
and scenery inthe Qing and Chu area".
They may appear in genitive constructions, representing either the possessor, as in (4), or the possessed, as in (5).
(4) 說西施妲己貌。(變文﹕657)
talk - Xi Shi Da Ji - appearance
"Talk about the facial appearance of Xi Shi and Da Ji".
(5) 他家日月自分明。(變文﹕567)
3PL - family - sun - moon - self - bright
"`Others' sun and moon are still brilliant".
Coordinate NPs may appear as the objects of prepositions.
(6) 石崇素与璵琨善。 (仇隙)
Shi Chong - long - COMI - Yu Kun - be:friend
"Shi Chong has long been friendly to Yu and Kun".
2.2. There are basically two types of NP coordination structures in Shishuo Xinyu 世說新語. One is simple juxtaposition, i.e., coordination without an oveconjunction, as in (7).
(7) 王劉听林公講。(賞譽)
Wang Liu - listen - Lin - mister - lecture
"Wang and Lin attended Mr. Lin's lecture".
Nothing appears between the coordinate NPs `Wang' and `Liu'.
Simple juxtaposition can conjoin more than two NPs.
(8) 子曾不如太原溫(禺頁)穎川
2nd- ever - NEG -compare- Taiyuan Wen Yu- Yingchuan
荀寓范陽張華士卿劉許
Xun Yu, Fanyang Zhang Hua, -clan:officer - Liu Xu
義陽鄒湛河南鄭詡。(排調)
Yiyang Zou Zhan - Henan Zheng Xu.
"You have never been the equal of Wen Yu of Taiyuan, Xun Yu
of Yingchuan, Zhang Hua of Fanyang, officer Lin Xu, Zou Zhan
of Yiyang and Zheng Xu of Henan".
Of 211 instances of NP coordination in the entire data base, 200, or 95 %, are of this type.
The other structure is coordination with a conjunction word, as in
(9), where the conjunction ji 及 is used linking Yuanli and binke
(9) 元禮及賓客莫不奇之。(言語)
Yuanli - CONJ - guest - none - NEG - think:exception -3SG
"Yuanli and guests all thought he was exceptional"
Table 1 below summarizes the general situation for NP coordination in Shishuo Xinyu 世說新語.
Simple juxtaposition 200 95%
Overt conjunction 11 5%
Total NP coordination 211 100%
Table 1. NP coordination in Shishuo Xinyu 世說新語.
Table 1 shows convincingly that the predominate device of NP coordination in Early Medieval Chinese is simple juxtaposition.
2.3. Conjunctions are used quite rarely. Of eleven conjunction-linked coordinations, seven involve at least one non-specific NP referent. A nominal is considered non-specific if its referent is not an individual, and/or is not fully referential, as binke `guests' in (9). For an illustrative minimal pair, compare the NPs in (10) and (11).
(10) 王右軍郗夫人謂二弟司空中郎曰，(賢媛)
Wang Youjun Xi - wife - tell - two brother - Sikong Zhonglang QUO
"Wang Youjun's wife Xi told her two brothers Sikong and Zhonglang".
(11) 時諸人士及林法師并在會稽西寺講。(文學)
then-several-people-CONJ-Lin-Master-together-be:at-Kuaiji-West-Temple-lecture
"At that time several people together with Master Lin were
lecturing at the Kuaiji West Temple".
In (10), Sikong and Zhonglang are two individual persons, and no conjunction is used to link them; but in (11), zhu renshi `several people' is a non-specific expression, and ji is used to link it with `Lin Fashi'.
2.4.There are four cases where the linked NPs are specific, and yet a conjunction is used, e.g.,
(12) 諸葛謹弟亮及從弟誕并有盛名。(品藻)
Zhuge Jin- younger:brother Liang - CONJ- cousin - Dan -all - possess
- flourishing - reputation
"Zhuge Jin, his younger brother Liang, and cousin Dan all have
flourishing reputations."
Apparently, the function of the conjdnction here is to subdivide the last NP from what precedes it. The NPs before and after the conjunction are conceptually separable, that is, they are taken as in some way related to but distinct from each other. We may call such NPs separable NPs. In (12), the NP referents before the conjunction, Zhuge Jin and his brother Zhuge Liang, are closer in kinship than they are with their cousin Zhuge Dan, the NP referent after the conjunction.
Separable NPs are not limited to kinship. Consider (13):
(13) 王子(酋犬)子敬兄弟共賞高士傳人及贊。(品藻)
Wang Ziqiu- Zijing- brother -togather-together-read-noble-
biography - figure - CONJ - commentary
"The brothers Wang Ziqiu and Wang Zijing together read the
figures and the commentaries of the Noble Biography".
Here, `figure' and `commentary' are separated because the figure part is
normally considered the main body of a biographical book, and the
commentaries are epenthetic to it.
2.5. From a discourse point of view, three kinds of coordinate NPs stand as distinct in Early Medieval Chinese: (a) conceptually unitary coordinate NPs -- those that are specific, and normally get simple juxtaposition; typical of this are those frozen expressions such as Lao Zhuang `(sages) Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi', Yao Shun `(ancestors) Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun', which are seldom separated by a conjunction; (b) non-specific NPs, as defined earlier, those that are non-individual, not fully referential. They are typically linked by overt conjunctions; and (c) separable NPs, which may be specific but conceptually distinct from each other and can be overtly conjoined by conjunctions. This last type of coordinate NPs appear to be rare in Early Medieval Chinese, as compared with those in Late Medieval Chinese (cf. 4.2).
The data presented above suggest an NP hierarchy concerning how coordination receives overt linking:
That is, non-specific NP referents are most likely to have overt marking
while conceptually unitary NP referents are least likely.
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Contrary to the general practice, the figures provided in Table 1 do not include comitatives. We found evidence to maintain the distinction between comitatives and coordinations in Medieval Chinese.
3.1. In coordinating constructions, the linked NPs by definition have the same grammatical status, and nothing appears between NPl (the NP before the conjunction) and the conjunction; in comitative constructions, however, the NPs involved do not have an equal status, and adverbials and negatives are freely inserted between NP1 and the preposition. Examples (14) and (15) contain comitative constructions where the comitative preposition is preceded by an adverbial or a negative.
(14) 宣王既与亮對渭而陳。(方正)
Xuan - Prince - already - COMI -Liang- face - Wei - V:CONJ -deploy
"Prince Xuan already deployed his army at the other bank of the
Wei River facing with Liang's army".
(15) 王太尉不与瘐子嵩交。(方正)
Wang - marshal - NEG - COMI - Yu Zisong - be:friend
"Grand Marshal Wang was not on friendly terms with Yu Zisong".
3.2. The distribution, in connection with what we just said in 3.1., of ji 及 and yu 与 , supports the coordination-comitative distinction. I found that yu 与 is basically a comitative preposition (for the only one exception, see note 6), and ji 及 is only a conjunction in Early Medieval Chinese.
3.2.1. Coordination may or may not involve an overt conjunction, whereas a comitative must have a comitative preposition present.
3.2.2. Zero anaphora is not allowed in coordination, but possible in comitatives. Below are comitatives which have zero anaphora in different positions with regard to the comitative preposition.
(16) 司徒王戎及貴且富，
director - Wang Rong - V:CONJ - noble - V:CONJ - wealthy
洛下無比。
Luo-vicinity -NEG -compare
(0) 每与夫人燭下散籌弄計。(儉嗇)
-(Wang) - often -COMI- wife - candle:under spread:rod -count:sum
"Director Wang Rong was both noble and wealthy. He was
unequaled in the Luoyang area. (Wang) was often with his wife
spreading,, out the counting rods to calculate their earnings under
the lamp."
(17) 諸葛汯(無“水”邊)將遠徙，友人王夷甫之徒
Zhuge Hong - future - far:move, friend - Wang Yipu -- others
恉檻車与別。(黜免)
go:to -prison:van - COMI - (Zhuge) see: off
"Zhuge Hong was about to be sent for exile, his friend Wang
Yipu and others went to his prisoner's van to say good-bye to
(him)".
(18) a.阮籍嫂嘗還家，
Ruan Ji - brother's wife - once - return - home
"Ruan Ji's brother's wife once wanted to visit her family,
b. 籍見，
Ji-see
Ruan Ji saw her,
c. (0)与別。(任誕)
(Ruan) - COMI - (her)- say:good-bye
and (Ruan) said good-bye to (her)".
3.2.3. Finally, in text comitatives are used when NPl shows higher topicality and/or empathy than NP2 (Kuno 1976, Chafe 1976). In other words, in comitatives there is a dffference in discourse roles between NPI and NP2, whereas in coordination there is not.
In (19) the NPi, Prime Minister Wang, is clearly the topic of the passage.
(19)a. 王丞相過江，
Wang - prime:minister - cross - Long:River
"After Prime Minister Wang escaped across the Long River,
b. 自說昔在洛水邊
-(Wang) self - say - past - be:at - Luo:river - side
he talked about the past when he was at the Bank of the Luo River,
c. 數与裴成公阮千里
(Wang) - several:time - COMI - Pei Chenggong Ruan Qianli
that for many times (he)
d. 諸賢共談道。(企羡)
several - noble - together - discuss - principle
had discussed the principle of the nature with Pei Chenggong,
Ruan Qianli and other nobles".
In (20), NPl represents the speaker's focus of empathy, namely, the speaker is presenting the event from NP1's (here, Ruan's) point of view. First, the referent 鄰家婦 `neighboring lady', the initial topic of the passage, is introduced by anchoring it with only Ruan (in (20a)), rather than both Ruan and Wang.
(20)a. 阮公鄰家婦有美色，
Ruan - mister - neighbor - lady - possess - beauty
"Mr. Ruan's neighboring lady was a pretty woman,
b. 當壚沽酒
be:at - liquor:store - sell - liquor
(she) sold liquor at her store."
Later, as the text continues, Ruan emerges as the topic of the subsequent discourse (in (20d)).
(2O)c. 阮与王安丰常從婦飲酒，
Ruan - with - Wang Anfeng - often - go:to - lady - drink - liquor -
Ruan often went together with Wang to the lady for drnks.
d. 阮醉便眠其婦側。(任誕)
Ruan-drunk-then-sleep-that-lady- side -
When Ruan got drunk he always slept beside the lady".
It is important to note that looking at sentences like (2Oc) in isolation, or appealing to clause-level semantics alone, does not enable us to determine the syntactic nature of the construction in question, as some scholars (e.g., Zhan, 1973) have claimed. It is true that with coordination constructions in the preverbal position, the action is performed by both NPI and NP2, while in comitatives it is performed by NPl (possibly affecting NP2, as in (18c)); however, there is no way to use this criterion to determine comitatives like (19c-d) and (2Oc) where the action is performed by both NPl and NP2 (and syntactically nothing appears before yu 与 in (2Oc)). Only a text analysis reveals that the linked NPs in sentences like (19c) and (20c) differ in their discourse status; and they are in comitative constructions, rather than in coordinate norninals.
3.3.Summary of NP coordination in Early Medieval Chinese.
Simple juxtaposition is the major device used in this period. Overt
marking, with ji及, appears mainly with non-specific NPs. It also
appears with separale NPs. The frequency of the latter case, however,
is fairly low. Unitary NP referents contrast conceptually with both non-specific
and separable NPs. In grammar, conceptually unitary NP
referents tend to be linked by zero forms, while the others take overt
conjunctions. Comitative relationships are expressed by yu 与 in Early
Medieval Chinese. They differ from coordination in both morpho-syntax
and discourse in a number of ways; most importantly, NPs in
comitatives play different discourse roles.
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4.l. Simple juxtaposition remains the major device for NP coordination in Late Medieval Chinese, as shown in Table 2. The frequency of overt conjunction has increased substantially, however, as can be seen by comparing these figures to those in Table 1.
Simple juxtaposition 480 82%
Oven conjunction 112 18%
Total NP coordination 592 100%
Table 2. NP coordination in Dunhuang Bianwen 敦煌變文
4.2. The increase of overt marking in this period is due primarily
to the grammaticization of what we shall call sub-dividability. Sub-
dividability is taken in general to refer to coordination where conjuncts
are closely related yet separable.
Sub-dividability makes reference to both discourse context and conception.
4.2.1. Contextual sub-dividability. NP referents may be closely associated in a discourse event and yet differ in importance in the context where they appear. These NPs tend to receive overt marking when coordinated.
(2l) 康太清取(毛占)一領及釘。(變文﹕219)
Kang Taiqing - get - blanket - one - CLS - CONJ - nail
"Kang Taiqing then brought a blanket, and nails".
Here, according to the text, the blanket is the major item needed to demonstrate the medical technique of a monk depicted in the story, and the nails are to be used just to nail up the blanket. Below is another example.
(22) 皇后禁賢獄中賢共婦具時自倒而死也。(變文﹕163)
empress - imprison - Xian prison - inside - Xian - CONJ -
wife - together - then - self - fall - V:CONJ - die - PRT
"The empress put Xian behind the bars, Xian and his wife then
both fell down and died".
Xian in this story is the main character.
Contextual sub-dividable coordinations are apparently rare. We found only 6 examples of this type in Dunhuang Bianwen 敦煌變文.
4.2.2. The majority of overt conjunctions involve conceptual subrdividabllity. That is, conjoined elements are conceptually classified as one category, yet belong to different subcategories.
Conceptually sub-dividable nominal elements may form the whole coordination construction. Schematically, in `A, B CONJ C, D', A, B, C and D are the conjoined nominals, yet the unit consisting of A and B is separable from that consisting of C and D.
(23)a. 彼時山林之中
DEM - time -forest NOM - inside
"At that time in the forest,
b. 迦毗羅鳥兔及獼猴象等四獸
kapila(brown) - bird - hare - CONJ - macaque elephant - those - four - animal
the four animals: kapila (brown) bird, hare and macaque, elephant
c. 結為兄弟。(變文﹕855)
form - RESULT -- brother
became sworn brothers".
At first glance, the division of the four animals into two groups in (23b) is rather obscure. It turns out that in this fable the bird stands for the Buddha himself, and the hare stands for the famous Buddhist Sheli; and the macaque and the elephant stand for Mulian and A'nan respectively, who are the two pupils of Buddha.
In other cases, a conjoined element itself is subdividable so the overt marking is used; schematically, `A, B(b1 CONJ b2), C, D', as in the following example.
(24)a. 給孤長者便布施
Jigu - rich:man - then - donate
`This rich man of Jigu then donated
b. 五百個童身
five - hundred - CLS - young:boy
five hundred young boys,
c. 五百個童女
five - hundred - CLS- - young:girl
five hundred young girls,
d. 五百頭牸牛并犢子
five - hundred - CLS - female - cow - CONJ - calf
five hundred cows and calves,
e. 金錢舍勒三故。(變文﹕819)
money - skirt (Sataka) - sangu9
money, skirts and sangu'.
In (24d) cows are separated from calves.
Consider another example, which Involves human referents.
(25) 父母及儿三人知，
father - mother - CONJ - son - three - person - know -
"Only the father, mother and the son they three knew,
余人不知。(變文﹕290)
rest - person - NEG - know
the rest did not".
The parents are separated from the son.
In this section, then, we have seen that conjunctions are used in Late Medieval Chinese to link NPs that are sub-dividable in terms of both context and conception.
4.3. In Late Medieval Chinese, conjunctions, mostly ji 及, also appear with non-specific NPs, as is the case in Early Medieval Chinese.
(26)a. 其時太子在於宮中
DEM - time - prince - be:at - at - palace - inside -
"At that time, the Prince was in his palace,
b. 隨遣宮監及諸從人
then - order - royal: officer - CONJ - various - servant
he asked royal officers and various servants
c. 同往觀看。(變文﹕334)
together - go - watch
to travel together with him".
Both `royal officers' and `servants' in (26b) are non-specific.
Sometimes sub-dividability and non-specificity overlap, as in (27a).
(27)a. 玄宗皇帝及朝廷大臣
Xuanzong - emperor - CONJ - royal - minister
"Emperor Xuanzong and ministers
b. 嘆淨能絕古超今。(變文:223)
admire - Jingneng - never-seen-before-never-to-occur-again
praised Yingneng the smartest of all time".
An even more interesting example is (21)(in 4.2.1), where the overtly linked conjuncts (sub-dividable NPs) differ in contextual importance, with the more important one having a specific form, zhan yi ling '1one (classifier) blanket' and the less important one a non-specific form ding `nail(s)'.
4.4. Another factor that affects the figures of overt marking in Table 2 is rhyming. In Dunhuang Bianwen 敦煌變文, many texts consist of both narratives and poetry (or lyrics). Of the 112 cases of overt marking, nearly half of them (55 out of 112) are in the poetic portion of the text.
Narrative 57 50.08%
Poetry 55 49.92%
Total overt-marking 112 100%
Table 3. Conjunctions in narrative and poetry
Thus, we find many cases where conjunctions are used only in the poetic portion, but not in narratives, even though they are. identical in content. Compare nan nu男女 `male and female (children)' in the following two segments of the same text.
(28)a. Narrative:
男女成長以后各須仕宦
male - female - grow:up - after - everyone - need - be:official -
經營總出他州母心相逐。(變文﹕689)
do- always - go - other - state - mother - heart - be:with
"After the males and females (children) grow up, they need to
seek an official imperial position. If they do, they usually have to
go out somewhere else. Mother will always be thinking of them
(no matter where they are)".
b. Poetry
思量我等生身母
think:about - 1PL - birth - body - mother -
終日憂怜男与女 (變文:689)
all-day - worry - male - CONJ - female
"Think about our mothers, they worry about their children all the time."
Notice that in the poetry each line has exactly seven syllables; without the conjunction yu 与 the second line would have only six syllables, resulting in an uneven mix of the two.
4.5. In Late Medieval Chinese we find four kinds of constructions, -- conceptually unitary coordination, non-specific NP coordination, sub-dividable coordination, and the comitative construction. The co-existence of these four yields a diversification of the linking tokens: the conjunction ji 及 is used for both the non-specific NP coordination (as in Early Medieval Chinese) and the sub-dividable NP coordination; yu 与 , as in Early Medieval Chinese, is still primarily the comitative marker, but can also be used in sub-dividable coordinations. Furthermore, sub-dividable coordinations are found to be marked also by other tokens such as jiyi 及以, bing 并, jian 兼 and gong 共, etc. Apparently there is no significant difference among these conjunctions, except in frequency. Table 4 below shows the frequjency of occurrence of each of conjunctions found in Dunhuang Bianwen 敦煌變文.
及 ji 65 并及 bingji 1
与 yu 22 共 gong 1
并 bing 11 及以 jiyi 1
兼 jian 7 兼与 jianyu 1
兼及 jianji 3
Total 112
Table 4. Conjunctions of sub-dividable NPs in Dunhuang Bianwen 敦煌變文
We have seen a case of using bing 并 in (24d) above. Now look at example (29) with jian 兼.
(29) 遍野飛禽兼走獸 (變文:484)
all:over - field - fly - bird - CONJ - walk - beast
"Flying birds and walking beasts are everywhere".
The variety of conjoining tokens found- in this period is reminiscent of a common principle in histoflcal syntax, that is, whenever the grammaticization of a newly emerged structure is in progress, the grammatical elements that are currently available in the language will compete for it (Hopper 1988; Peyraube, forthcoming).
On the other hand, the variety of conjunctions in Late Medieval Chinese confirms Mithun's (1988:351) Finding:
Coordinating conjunctions arise from a variety of sources, at a variety of points in the grammar, and spread in a variety of directions. There does not appear to be a universal path of development along which they necessarily evolve.
A detailed description of the origins of the conjunctions involved here is beyond the scope of the present study. Briefly, we find thai almost all of these linking elements originate from verbs. They appear as conjunctions at various points in time (not necessarily in Late Medieva] Chinese). And many of them are also used in Late Medieval Chinese for verbal coordination or clause linking.
4.6. Summary of NP coordination in Late Medieval Chinese.
Many of the coordinating patterns in Early Medieval Chinese are
continued in Late Medieval Chinese. The most prominent development is
that the coordination of sub-dividable NP referents emerges only in Late
Medieval Chinese as a grammaticized syntactic construction. That it is
expressed by various conjunctions of different sources is seen as an
instantiation of the principle of competing forms in the evolution of
language; it also provides a case where the source of conjunctions is
found to be non-unique.
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We conclude this paper by proposing the iconicity principle (cf. Haiman 1983) for the grammar of NP coordination in Medieval Chinese.
Our proposal is that the greater the distance between coordinate NPs perceived by the speaker, the more likely the NPs are to be separated by linguistic elements in the grammar.
Assuming that the degree of separation of the conjoined NP referents becomes greater in a continuum beginning from unitary coordination, to non-specific NP coordination or sub-dividable coordination, and ultimately to comitative, it is easy to understand why unitary coordination is syntactically in contrast with all the others, i.e., expressed by simple juxtaposition as opposed to overt linking.
At the other extreme we see a contrast between coordination and comitative constructions: since NPs in a comitative are conceptually most distant from each other, only in this construction we find that adverbials and negatives are allowed to be inserted in between the NPs; and, unlike conjunctions in coordination, the comitative preposition is obligatorily used.
The iconicity principle also predicts the place of the grammaticization of overt linking in coordination constructions. Specifically, it predicts that the overt linking for coordination constructions most likely take place where conceptual separation is distant between NP referents. This is exactly the case we found for sub- dividable coordination in Late Medieval Chinese.
Finally, let us schematically combine the iconicity principle and the diachronic development of NP coordination from Early Medieval Chinese (EMC) to Late Medieval Chinese (LMC) as below.
----------------- Degree of Separation of NPs --------------------------
| D
unitary -> non-specific/sub-dividable -> comitative | i
| a
EMC: 0 及 (rare) adv.+ 与 yu | c
| h
| r
LMC: 0 及 及/与 adv.+ 与 yu | o
兼 jiard/并 bing | n
共 gong, etc. | y
v
CLS: classifier COMI: comitative preposition CONJ: conjunction DEM: demonstrative NEG: negative marker NOM: nominalizer PRT: utterance final particle QUO: quotation RESULT: resultative V:CONJ verb phrase conjunction 1PL: first person plural 2SG; second person singular 3SG: third person singularback to top
HAIMAN John (1983). "Iconic and Economic Motivation", Language, 59:4.
HOPPER Paul (1988). "Some Heuristic Principles of Grammaticization". Paper presented at the Symposium on Grammaticalization". Eugene, Or., May 1988.
JIANG Zongxu 蔣宗許(1990). "'Binglie lianci yu, ji yongfa bianxi' zhiyi" [[Questions Regarding `an Analysis of the Use of the Conjunctions Yu and Ji], Zhongguo Yuwen 中國語文, 2, pp. 141-144.
蔣宗許﹕并列連詞‘与、及’用法辨析”置疑。
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LI Charles N. ed., (1976). Subject and Topic. New York: Academic Press.
LIU Jian (1989). "Shilun `he' zi de fazhan, fulun `gong' zi he `lian' zi" [[On `he', `gong' and `lian'], Zhongguo Yuwen 中國語文 , 6, pp. 447- 453.
劉堅﹕試論“和”字的發展，附論“共”字和“連”字。
LÜ Shuxiang (1944). Zhongguo wenfa yaolue [[A Sketch of Chinese Grammar]. Shanghai : Shangwu.
呂叔湘﹕中國文法要略。
MATHER Richard B. (Translator, 1976). A New Account of Tales of the World. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
MITHUN Marianne (1988). "The Grammaticization of Coordination", in: J. Haiman and S.A. Thompson, eds, Clause Combining in Grammar and Discourse. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins.
PEYRAUBE Alain (1988). Syntaxe diachronique du chinois: Evolution des constructions datives du 14e siècle av. J.-C. au 18e siècle. Paris: Collège de France: IHEC (Mémoires de l'Institut des hautes études chinoises; 29).
------, Forthcoming. "Syntactic Change in Chinese : On Grammaticalization". To appear in: Memorial Volume for Prof. Li Fang-Kuei. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology. Taiwan.
WANG Chongmin et al. eds., (1958). Dunhuang Bianwenji [[Dunhuang Manuscripts]. Beijing: Renmin Wenxue.
王重民等﹕敦煌變文集。
WANG Li (1954). Zhonggao yufa lilun [The Theory of Chinese Grammar], Beijing : Zhonghua.
王力﹕中國語法理論。
------ (1958). Hanyu shigao [A Preliminary History of the Chinese Language]. Beijing: Kexue.
王力﹕漢語史稿。
XU Xiaofu (1981). "Gu hanyu zhong de 'yu' he `ji'" [Yu and Ji in Classical Chinese]. Zhongguo Yuwen 中國語文, 5, pp. 374-383.
徐肖斧﹕古漢語中的“与”和“及”。
ZHAN Xiuhui (1973). Shishuo Xinyu yafa yanjiu [Studies of the Grammar of a New Account of Tales of the World]. Taiwan: Xuesheng shuju.
詹秀惠﹕世說新語語法研究。
ZHOU Shengya (1989). "Binglie lianci `yu, ji' yongfa bianxi [[An Analysis of the Use of the Conjunctions Yu and Ji], Zhongguo Yuwen 中國語文, 2, pp. 137-142.
周生亞﹕并列連詞“与、及”用法辨析。
2. Xu (1981) provides no criteria for distinguishing conjunctions and prepositions.
3. The periodization adopted here follows Peyraube (1988).
4. For Shishuo Xinyu 世說新語, chapter titles are given in the examples cited in this paper. For Dunhuang Bianwen (D) 敦煌變文, I use the version of Wang Chongming et al. (1958); page numbers in the examples of this paper refer to the originals.
5. Mather (1976) is frequently consulted, though is not followed in every case, for the English translation of some of the examples in Shishuo Xinyu 世說新語. Note that the English translations of the examples provided in this paper are not intended to be free translations.
6. Only one coordination is marked by yu 与 `with/and'.
冀州刺史楊淮二子喬与髦俱總角為成器 (品藻)
Jizhou - governor - Yang Huai - two - son- Qiao - CONJ - Mao - all -
teen - become- mature
"The two sons of Jizhou's Governor Yang Huai, Qiao and Mao, both
became well-known in their teens".
7. A similar situation is found in Bai Yu Jing 百喻經, a Buddhist text about 50 years later (ca. 479-502) than Shishuo Xinyu 世說新語, as shown in the table below.
Total 51 Specific Specific Non-specific
but Separable
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simple juxtaposition 32 30 (93.7%) 2 (6.3%)
Overt conjunction* 19 5 (26.3%) 14 (73.7%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Including conjunctions ji 及 (9), jiyi 及以 (6), bingi 并及 (3),
and bing 并 (1).
8. Recall that in Early Medieval Chinese we had a small number of cases where overt conjunctions were used to link separable NPs. We do not intend to claim, however, that conceptual subdividability emerges in Early Medieval Chinese, simply because that such cases in Shishuo Xinyu 世說新語 are too few to enable us to draw any conclusion.
9. The issue of the lexical meaning of sangu 三故 has not been
resolved.
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