Research On The Clitics In The Chinese Versions Of Buddhist Scriptures In The Yaoqin(姚秦) Dynasty

During the middle-archaic period, the limited Chinese traditional secular documents brought big difficulty to our language study. But there were a great number of Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures. The similarity between these versions and the oral language played an important role in the grammatical study of middle-archaic Chinese since it could help solving the problems that cannot be resolved in traditional secular documents. It is our aim to find out the distinctive grammar usage, to explain the reasons for emergence, to explore the way of realization in grammaticalization and the motivations and mechanisms of evolution of Buddhist morph-syntax.The paper focuses on the influence of the clitics(1) of the Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures upon the development of Chinese grammar. First, the clitics of the Chinese versions of Buddhist Scriptures are generalized. Then , we compare the differences of the clitics between the Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures and Chinese traditional secular documents during the middle-archaic period , such as Sanguozhi(三国志), Shishuoxinyu(世说新语), Qiminyaoshu(齐民要术) and Yanshijiaxun(颜氏家训). And we study their different characteristics in grammartizalation synchronically and diachronically. Our methods are generalization, description, analysis and comparison synchronically and diachronically with rational explained.What we would like to put forward is the following aspects:Firstly, we find out some new language material which played a significant role in the historical development of the Chinese grammar, such as the auxiliary verbs "Que(却)" and "Zhu(著)" which were used in syntax "VC O " and "VC" in the course of the history of grammaticizalationof complement structure. There were the "Er(尔) " and "Na(那) " used in the interrogative mood in the end of a sentence. There were the Wu(无) used in the repetitious question and the "Kan(看)" used in the attemptive mood in the end of a sentence. There new material solvedsome grammatical questions that cannot be solved in Chinese traditional secular documents.Secondly, we have fixed the emergence time of some grammar usage. People have always assumed that the emergence of the " Shi(时) " used in the hypothesis mood during was in the Tang(唐) Dynasty. But actually it was in Past Han Dynasty. The emergence of the auxiliary tense Lai(来) which was assumed to be in the Tang(唐) Dynasty. But actually it was in the Yaoqin(姚秦) Dynasty and its appearance was before the auxiliary verb. Thirdly, we have explored the source of some grammar usage. People held that "VPbu(不)" originated from "VPbu(不)VP" without the negative part "VP" . But we infer from the language facts that"VPbu(不)VP" originated from "VPbu(不)" . The clitic "Le(了)" was commonly considered to be originated from " Yi(已) ", "Jing(竟)"," Qi(讫) " and "Bi(毕) ". But from the analysis in the paper, we may define that Le(了) was partly from these four words in Chinese traditional secular documents and partly from Samskrtam Absoluteness(梵语绝对分词). Through the study of grammar in the Chinese versions of Buddhist Scriptures in the Yaoqin(姚秦) Dynasty, we learned that there were diversified influences on the in the Chinese versions of Buddhist Scriptures. In spite of the restrictions of Chinese grammar, there were many influences as follows.I. Impact of the source language of India.In the Chinese versions of Buddhist Scriptures, the passive sentence was widely used. The "Suo(所)V" pattern in passive voice was the direct translation of the original samskrtam(梵文) patterns with the prefixes "-ya", "-ta" , "-na" and "-tavya" . The plural forms of personal pronous "Wocao(我曹) " and " Wodeng(我等) " were the direct translation of the original samskrtam(梵文) patterns with the affixes "-aham" , "-avam" and "- vayam" . Therefore, the study of the grammar of the Chinese versions of Buddhist Scriptures should be based on the knowledge of the original Indian language.II. Impact of dialect and vernacular.Most of the translators...