A Study On The Nominal Predicate Sentences In Pre-Qin Chinese

The nominal predicate sentence (NPS) that can be described "NP₁-NP₂" is a characteristic sentence model and frequently used in Pre-Qin Chinese. Under the guide of Three-dimensional Grammar, Functional Grammar and rhetoric theories, this dissertation gives a full discussion of NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese basing on others' study and firsthand language materials. It is made of six parts: (â… )Introduction; (â…¡) Syntax analysis of NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese ;(â…¢) Semantic analysis of NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese ; (â…£) Pragmatic analysis of NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese ; (â…¤) Comparative analysis of NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese and modern Chinese; (â…¥) Conclusion. It centres on the part from â…¡ to â…¤.In syntax, according to the role of predicate, NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese can be divided into eight syntactic patterns and three types: judgemental sentence, descriptive sentence and explanatory sentence. In semantics, NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese has seven main semantic structures and six semantic relationships namely, equivalent, entailment, space, time, proportion, and quantification. The declarative function of NP₂ includes judgment, quantity, property, embrace, existence, spot, proportion, and explanation. In pragmatics, the topic structure of NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese is simple. The informational structure of NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese is composed of intellectual information and demonstrative information. The location of the focus isn't stationary. It has such the pragmatic functions as emphasis, comparison, description, and explanation. The figure of speech in NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese involves six forms: metaphor, contraction, parallelism, depiction, antithesis, and exaggeration, etc. With comparison of NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese and modern Chinese, they have partial identity and difference on the levels of syntax, semantics and pragmatics.The dissertation reaches conclusions as follows: NPS in Pre-Qin Chinese is an important and typical sentence model, and has many contrastive features;...