The Research Of Time-category In Zuo-Zhuan

In the study of language, time is an important category. It is existed in all the languages, not only referred to semantics and grammar, but also has important connection with other categories such as mood and modality. As a result, research on the time-category is an important part of language study, and draws the scholars'attention more and more.The thesis chose Zuo-Zhuan as a basic material which was one of the most important materials in the Pre-Qin period, and discussed the relative concept and its expression reflected in Zuo-Zhuan.The thesis contained five chapters.Chapter 1 was introduction. This chapter defined the notion used in the thesis, pointed out that time-category was the reflection of the time concept in the language. Based on the different time concept, we divided the time-category into two parts: temporal system and tense-aspect category. Temporal system was made by time words which had the systematic meaning; the means to express tens-aspect category were complicated. After the definition, we made a summarization of the research on the time-category, pointed out the shortage of the research, and established the goal of the thesis.Chapter 2 mainly depicted and generalized the temporal system in Zuo-Zhuan. In the process of researching, we discussed the basis on which the temporal system was generated, depicted the expressing means of temporal system, generalized the characteristic of the time-units words, and especially analyzed the diversity of the meaning and function of the time-units words.Chapter 3 mainly discussed the tense-category in Zuo-Zhuan. Tense mean the location in time line of the situation. In a context, tense had two types of form: one was that speaker or the writer focused on one situation, using different ways to locate it on the time line; the other type was the time relationship of the situations which were depicted with no emphasis.For the first type, as the location of time to the situation was associated with the reference time, we divided the type into four parts depended on the characteristic of the reference time: temporal system words, words expressing past/now/future, things/situations, time scope. We depicted the meaning and function of the time words, generalized the ways to express the time scope, discussed the time characteristic of the things and situations used as the reference time, and generalized the ways to actualized it.For the second type, except for the expression by the order of the situation in syntax, Zuo-Zhuan also used'er而,sui遂,nai乃,ze則,yu-shi(hu)于是(乎),er-hou而後,ji既,shi適'as the means to express the tense concept. After depicting the means, we especially compared the difference between'er而,sui遂,nai乃', pointed out that from'er而'to'sui遂'to'nai乃', the time relationship of the two situations was weaken, while the logic relationship of'cause and effect'was amplified.Chapter 4 mainly discussed the aspect in Zuo-Zhuan. Aspect mean that speaker view a situation through a viewpoint, in order to emphasize some part of the inner temporal characteristic of the situation. Based on the different viewpoint, we divided the aspect into'perfective'and'imperfective'. The viewpoint of'perfective'was out of the situation or on the termination of the situation, means the completion of an activity or the accomplishment of a state. When a speaker put his viewpoint into the situation and described the inner time character of the situation, we got the'imperfective'.'Imperfective'can be divided into'beginning'(viewpoint was on the beginning of the situation) and'continuous'(viewpoint was on the procession of the situation). We found that Zuo-Zhuan mainly used adverb and modality particle as aspect marker:'ji既,yi已,chang嘗,yi矣'as the'perfective'marker,'chu初,shi始,xin新'as the'beginning'marker,'fang方,you猶'as the'continuous'marker. We discussed the meaning and usage of these markers and compared the differences between them.Chapter 5 was the conclusion. After the depiction of the time-category in Zuo-Zhuan, we especially discussed the differences between tense and aspect, depicted the co-occurrence of the tense makers and the aspect markers, and tried to establish a system of the time-category in Zuo-Zhuan.Through the discussion, we mainly had four conclusions as follow:1. Time-category was composed by temporal system and tense-aspect category which was based on different time concept. For the temporal system, we found that although it was a close system, its expressing means were open. It was testified not only by the fact that the time words which belong to some layer of the temporal system can express multiple meanings that beyond the temporal system (the multiple meanings of'ri日'as a temporal system word, etc. ), but also by the fact that some layers of the temporal system can choose different words to express their meaning (expression of the time unit"year").2. Both the tense and aspect in used lexical form as the main mean to express their meaning. (the only grammatical form was the'perfective'marker'yi矣'), so they all belonged to lexical category. But from the view of the kind, quantity and frequency of being used of the marker, tense markers were highly more than aspect markers. Tense markers could be nouns, noun structures, adverbs, conjunctions, preposition phrases. Aspect markers were mainly adverbs and modality particles.3. From the view of syntax position, tense markers were generally in the first position of the sentence, aspect markers were in the middle or the end of the sentence. The differences of the syntax position between tense markers and aspect markers showed that tense was the external time characteristic of the situation, so it belonged to the subordinate information of the expression of the situation; while aspect was the inner temporal characteristic of the situation, generally speaking, aspect need markers to express its meaning except for that'perfective'can used unmarked form to express its meaning. We also need to notice that there were some words such as'chu初,shi始,ji既'which belonged to both tense and aspect markers depended on their position in a sentence.4. From the view of the cooperation of tense and aspect markers, we found the following features:⑴.For the cooperation of tense markers, we found that: it was hardly to see different kinds of tense markers to modify a situation at the same time; in a discourse, a situation modified by a past-tense marker were often followed by a situation modified by a present-tense marker.⑵.For the cooperation of aspect markers, we only saw the cooperation of'perfective'markers, mainly showed as the cooperation of'ji既,yi已,chang嘗'and'yi矣'.⑶.For the cooperation of tense markers and aspect markers, there were four situations:①.a realistic complete situation modified by tense marker was not modified by'perfective'markers at the same time;②.'perfective'markers'ji既,yi已'only cooperated with'er而,er-hou而後,nai乃,sui遂'which were used to conjunct two independent situations, expressed the relation of succession of two independent situations;'yi矣'can cooperated with the tense marker'jin今'and'jiang將';③.The situation modified by'beginning'marker'shi始'mostly modified by tense markers at the same time to indicate the time when did the situation begun or appear first, if there was no tense marker, the time was indicated by the time of the situations before;④.'continuous'markers'fang方,you猶'can cooperate with tense markers'jin今,yu-shi於是', but only'you猶'can cooperate with temporal system words.