Study On Verbs Indicating Promotion And Demotion In Han Shu

When reading ancient books, especially histories, the reader often encounters such kind of words: in the terms of lexical meaning, they mean the offical's appointment, dismissal, promotion and demotion; in the terms of grammatical meaning, they are verbs often associated with the official's title and name, which reveal the changes of positions; such as "bai","qian"(to be promoted or to transfer) "xi"(to be exiled), "chu","jian"(to double), and "shou" (to be created), "mian","qu" and "ba"(to be deposed), "qi hai gu"(Ancient officials resign because of old age), "zhi shi"(to resign ), "zuo qian"(to be demoted), etc.Compiled by Ban Gu and other three authors in the Eastern Han dynasty, Han took them 34 years to complete, recording the historical evidences within the period from the first Han emperor, Liu Bang, to the usurper Wang Mang. Han includes the Western Han and Eastern Han. In the history of Chinese linguistics, the mid-ancient times dates from the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the Western Han Dynasty is a transition linking the primitive times with the mid-ancient times. All of the aspects of the language in this period, such as the phonetic, grammatical and semantic changes are active. Take verb for example, it can well reflect the social and times changes. Hence, the author hopes to gain insight into the properties and changes of lexicon within the mid-ancient times and the primitive times by studying the verbs involved with Official changes in Han.First, read through the Han, extract verbs based on the criteria for defining verbs of Official changes to produce the system of verbs Official changes in Han, and divide these verbs into six types according to semantic distinctions.Then, study the members of verbs of Official changes, analyze how the "official" meaning is derived from the original meaning and extended meaning of each verb, and make sense of the specific meaning of each verb.Next, analyse the semanteme of each of verbs in the same category, so as to conclude the design features of each verb.The above study aims at the paradigmatic relations of verbs.Finally, analyse the syntagmatic relation of each verb, to see what their syntagmatic models are, and how to form the syntagmatic relation in accordance with the grammatical rules.The text is divided into three chapters:Chapter one involes six sections. section I: define and classify the verbs of the Official changes; section II: the current state of the relative researches; section III: theobjects and meanings; section IV: the theoretical basis of the study; section V: state the research methods; section VI: ways to extract this kind of verbs.Chapter two includes seven sections: each section describes one kind of verbs of Official changes.Chapter three: conclude the text.