УРОК 52

GRAMMAR COMMENTARY

52.1. Compound Predicatives

The widespread use of compound predicatives, consisting of two synonymous or similar components, is a distinctive feature of the post-classical period in the history of ancient Chinese. A characteristic feature of this type of predicative is the free permutation of the component morphemes. For example: 悲哀 bēi āi and 哀悲 āi bēi "to grieve": 飮酒則歡樂, 處喪則悲哀 yǐn jiǔ zé huān lè, chù sāng zé bēi āi "When you drink wine, you rejoice; when you mourn, you grieve."
心中哀悲而不能去 xīn zhōng āi bēi ér bù néng qù "The heart is filled with sadness and cannot get rid of it."
A similar compound predicative is also noted in the text of lesson 52. This is 歸還 guī huán — 還歸 huán guī "to return":
不久當歸還 bù jiǔ dāng guī huán
不久當還歸 bù jiǔ dāng huán guī} "I'll be back soon."

52.2. Passive Marker 被 bèi

In classical Chinese, 被 bèi was a notional word meaning "to be subjected to," "to experience." It could have a direct object:
數被水旱之害 shù bèi shuǐ hàn zhī hài "to be repeatedly subjected to natural disasters such as floods and droughts."
In post-classical Chinese, 被 bèi is transformed into a passive marker. As such, 被 bèi does not take an object; After it, the predicative may be preceded by a word denoting the subject of the action:
亮子被蘇峻害 liàng zǐ bèi sū jùn hài "Liang's son was killed by Su Jun."
Sometimes—though extremely rarely—被 bèi still functions as a predicative "to be subjected to." In the work "New Versions of Old Stories," the word 被 bèi is recorded 28 times as a passive marker and only twice as a notional predicative.

52.3. The function word yù (欲 yù)

The function word yù (欲 yù), previously used as a notional word, becomes a future tense marker in the post-classical language. Its distinctive feature is that it is used primarily in impersonal sentences:
外 欲 曙 wài yù shǔ "It's about to dawn outside."

52.4. The function word dāng (當 dāng)

The function word dāng (當 dāng) was encountered in the late classical language as a modal predicative (44.4). Expressing the objective necessity of performing a particular action, dāng is also used in post-classical Chinese, typically in impersonal sentences:
dāng shēng bō qí pí "He should be skinned alive!"
Dāng is also found in sentences that specify the subject of the action. Most often, it is expressed by a personal pronoun. In this context, 當 dāng no longer denotes an obligation, but is an indicator of the future tense:
我亦當往 wǒ yì dāng wǎng "I'll go too."
我今當一一嘗之,然後當取 wō j īn dāng yī yī cháng zhī, rán hòu dāng qǔ "Now I'll try them one by one, and then I'll take them."
Compare with the following sentence from our text:
吾今且報府,不久當歸還 wú j īn qiě bào fǔ, bù jiǔ dāng guī huán "I'm going to the office now, I'll be back soon."

52.5. Nominal Suffixes

The emergence of nominal suffixes is one of the most characteristic features of post-classical Old Chinese, although this process began in the classical period.

Among the nominal suffixes, the first to be used was, in all likelihood, 子 zǐ. Lesson 52 notes a name with this suffix (珠子 zhūzǐ).

Nominal suffixes become formal indicators of a word's membership in a class of nouns, regardless of grammatical context. A word formed with a suffix could not be used as a predicative.

This represents a qualitative shift, marking the beginning of the formation of the modern Chinese language.