Research On Conjunctions In Chu Bamboo Slips In Warring Times

This paper studies the conjunction system in Chu bamboo slips, based on the Chu bamboo slips unearthed in Old Chu Kingdom in the period of Warring States.This paper is written on the following three principles:Firstly, the accurate explanation of basic documents and the objectivity and unification of grammatical analysis on the documents must be guaranteed; Secondly, conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips must be put into the semantic and grammatical system which they come from, and investigation of their usage must be made in different levels to discover their nature; Thirdly, problems neglected by former researchers must be take into account.To make the research objective and dependable, this paper makes some basic work. We straighten out achievements on textual explanations of Chu bamboo slips, absorb correct opinions, and revise the textual explanation of Chu bamboo slips contained on our research scope. The fruit of this kind of work is included in the attachment of this paper. We ponder over and put forward definite criteria on the grammatical analysis of conjunctions. Please see the case analyses part of conjunctions. In order to analyze the grammatical attribution and some data concerned, we build a database of conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips. Besides, we sort out and select related research achievements in the part of foreword.The main body of this paper is made up of four parts.The first part is from Chapter Two to Chapter Five. This part concentrates on the case study of18single syllable conjunctions.In the case study, we lay emphasis on putting conjunctions into semantic and grammatical systems, discuss the usage of prepositions, adverbs, pronouns connected with the conjunctions, explore the position and nature of these conjunctions in its own language environment, observe the degree of these conjunctions becoming functional and also their ability of connecting elements of language. This is the first level of the research on the conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips. We conclude that none conjunction can be dealt with separately, every one of them is a part of the organic and ever developing system of language.In this part, we observe some special properties of conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips, and we also raise some opinions different from previous researches, concentrating on conjunctions "er(而)","yi(以)","ze(则)","si(斯)","you (又)", etc.In the second part, we collect all the conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips, make an overall summary of the conjunction system in Chu bamboo slips from the angles of semantic relationship and grammatical function. This is the second level of the research on conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips. We classify all the conjunctions. On this basis, we differentiate what is primary from what is secondary, what is different from what is identical, the division of functions, and the coordination of elements in the same classification. Please see Chapter Six:The conjunction system in Chu bamboo slips.Our main conclusions are as follows. The conjunction system in Chu bamboo slips includes18single syllabic conjunctions,11disyllabic conjunctions (set phrase). The succeeding conjunctions and cause-and-effect conjunctions are most developed. In11classifications of conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips, functions of members in most classifications are clear and definite. Only functions of succeeding conjunctions and cause-and-effect conjunctions are partially intersecting, cooperating, and there are also some differences between them. The conjunctions of different grammatical functions correspond and connect orderly with the semantic meaning expressed by them.In the third part, we investigate the conjunction system in Chu bamboo slips in the history of Chinese language. Through comparison with Chinese language in other period of the history, we inquire into the development of conjunctions in the history of Chinese language, give prominence to the characteristics of conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips. This is the third level of the research on the conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips. Please see Chapter Six:The position of conjunction system in Chu bamboo slips in the history of Chinese language.Our main conclusions are that the succeeding conjunctions and cause-and-effect conjunctions in the conjunction system in Chu bamboo slips develop greatly, the semantic and grammatical functions of some single syllabic conjunctions with high frequencies become mature. This reflects the characteristics of the developing of conjunctions in Warring Times. Compared with Qin bamboo slips, the supposing conjunction and selective conjunction in Chu bamboo slips are less developed.In the fourth part, we discuss the distribution of documents of conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips, please see Chapter Seven. Former researchers nearly touch upon this area.We compare the distribution of conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips through three steps. Firstly, we classify documents of Chu bamboo slips into old books and application documents, and then make a comparison between them. Secondly, we take bamboo slips of Guodian (郭店) and those of Baoshan (包山) as representatives of documents of old books and application, make further comparison between these two different types of documents.Our main conclusions are as follows. The conjunctions in old books take dominant positions in the types, members, frequencies etc. of conjunction use, and take absolute dominant position in the use of succeeding conjunctions and cause-and-effect conjunctions. All kinds of functions of conjunctions are more developed in old books. Application documents cover mainly four types of conjunctions. In application documents, functions of conjunctions are simple, conjunctions are seldom used between sentences than between words and phrases of juxtaposed relationship.The decisive elements that affect the usage of conjunctions are types and contents of documents. The styles of articles and pursuit of expression effects influence the characteristics of use of conjunctions in old books. And the contents of bamboo slips and forms of expression influence the use of conjunctions with high frequencies in application documents. In addition, conjunctions in application documents don’t vary with different history periods.We use many methods to realize our goal of research, including analysis and census in database, analysis of different periods of Chinese history, comparison of the same period of times, systematic analysis on different levels, comparison and analysis on all the examples from documents collected.The contributions of this paper are important. It submits a systematic and objective report for the research of Chinese language history on conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips. By putting conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips into a system of many levels, it discovers some characteristics of conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips, makes the nature of conjunctions in Chu bamboo slips in the history of Chinese language, and pushes related research to step forward. Some special discussions in this paper is creative.