Study On The Polysyllabic Function Words Of An Shigao’s Translation Of Sutras

As the first person to translate sutras into Chinese,An Shigao has a pioneering position in the history of Buddhist sutras translation.As the precious corpus of the early Middle Ages,the translated texts are not only quite different from the relatively mature translated texts of later generations,but also reflect the language characteristics of the transition from ancient Chinese to middle Ages to a certain extent,which is of great research value.However,the current academic research results are all based on one of the translations of An Shigao,and there is a lack of overall research on all of his translations.Therefore,this paper,taking polyphonic function words as the starting point,tries to explore the linguistic characteristics of An Shigao’s translation from a holistic perspective,in order to provide some reference for the study of polyphonic function words since the Eastern Han Dynasty.All of An Shigao’s translations have been included in The Tazheng Xinxiu Tripitaka,but there is no popular single edition of his translations.Due to An Shigao translated by part number and title are controversial,so in the process of research,this paper selected the 13 translation of sutras by most scholars accepted as An shigao’s reliable translations,taking the combining synchronic and diachronic,quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis,and description and analysis to study the polysyllabic function words in An Shigao’s translations of sutras.At present,An Shigao’s reliable translation of sutras is about 76,000 Chinese characters,including 56 polysyllabic function words.There are 24 polysyllabic adverbs,18 polysyllabic pronouns,11 polysyllabic conjunctions,3 polysyllabic prepositions,non-polysyllabic auxiliary words and polysyllabic modal words.Based on the static description of the polysyllabic function words in An Shigao’s translation of Sutras,and the comparison with other sutras and Chinese documents of the same period and different periods several sutras,this paper concludes that the polysyllabic function words in An Shigao’s translation of sutras have the following four characteristics: firstly,the number of polysyllabic function words in An Shigao’s translation is abundant,but the frequency of use is low;Secondly,polysyllabic function words are mainly formed by combination and addition.Thirdly,there are many new polysyllabic function words;Fourthly,the plural form of personal pronoun appears in An Shigao’s translation of sutras.On this basis,The author analyzes the cause of characteristics of polysyllabic function words in An Shigao’s translation of sutras.From the language internal rules,translated by the sutra itself of the object,and the translator’s personal translation style three aspects: Firstly,An shigao is the first person who translated sutras having very big concern,in forming the characteristics of emerging polysyllabic function words;Secondly,compared with the translations of other translators of the same period,the number of An shigao’s translation of sutras is relatively small,which results in the low frequency of polysyllabic function words.Thirdly,the subjects involved in the translated sutras are the common people,which constitutes the use of plural personal pronouns in An Shigao’s translation of sutras.Generally speaking,the use of polysyllabic function words in An Shigao’s translation of sutras is basically the same as that in Middle Chinese,and there is no great differences.However,as the first person to translate sutras into Chinese,compared with other contemporary translations,An Shigao’s translation of sutras have more new linguistic phenomena that are different from native literature,which is worthy of further study and analysis.