Grammar Analysis Of Preposition Often Used In Ancient Chinese In Li Ji

Preposition that belongs to functional words in Chinese is an important means in Chinese grammar. The study of functional words has been paid much attention to by scholars of ancient Chinese before, and already yielded rich fruits. That provides a sound basis for the scholars after the elder. Most study on ancient Chinese preposition before focused on special subject of usage and individual preposition in one work. In recent years, scholars started to think of the study of certain work more and more, and have published relevant books successively. Preposition in their books is talked over in one chapter respectively. Li Ji records many kinds of thought, ceremony, custom and institution etc. of pre-Qin days, which reflects the language of that time. That work provides full and accurate language material for ancient Chinese language study.The descriptive method is the major study means used in this thesis. The thesis studies four prepositions in Li Ji. They are "Yu (与)" "Yu (于)" "Yu (於)" and "Yi (以)", which are often used in pre-Qin days. The thesis observes and studies the usage of the four prepositions and describes them. The thesis uses for reference the "semantic case system " of modern Chinese study and the classification made by the contemporary scholars of ancient Chinese. The scholars of modern Chinese classify the semantic case into six cases which are subject case, object case, neighborhood case, relevant case, depend-on case, reason case and environment case. A classification and quantitative statistic of the four prepositions are made according to their semantic function in order to make a more scientific study. Some special aspects are chosen to study: the component of the preposition object, the position of the preposition phrase and predicate modifier, the position of the preposition phrase in a sentence and the word order of preposition phrase. The thesis summarize that the semantic distribution and grammar form of kinds of cases.The conclusion:"Yu(与)"", the major function of it is to introduce the neighborhood case. The location of the preposition phrase is before verb in a sentence. The position of the preposition phrase as complement between the verb and its object appears once only in Li Ji.", the major function of it is to introduce environment case, and then some usage of neighborhood case. It also introduces agent, generalized patient, and material. The preposition phrase is after the verb of sentence. The usage of introducing material appears just three times only in Li Ji."Yu (j^)",the major function of it is to introduce environment case. It also has some usage of neighborhood case, agent, generalized patient and reason. The position of preposition phrase can be not only before verb, but also after verb in a sentence."Yi (?X)n, the major function of it is to introduce depend-on case including tool, material and manners, then the object case, and then the reason case. It also introduces the time of environment case and the neighborhood case except the comparison case. The position of preposition phrase can be not only before verb, but also after the verb in a sentence.According to the description of the semantic classification, a conclusion can be made, that the four preposition have different responsibility in the ancient Chinese preposition system. Although the four prepositions overlap in some function, the different between them can not be neglected. Yu(-^) has more complementary with Yi(iU) in semantic function. Y Yu(^) and Yi(￡l) have more complementary wit and Yu(]^) in position in a sentence...