A Study On Prepositions Of XinXu

XinXu(新序)is a book,which is compiled by many history stories.It is written by a well-known bibliographer,scientist,writer of Liu Xiang(刘向)(BC 79 - BC 8 years)in the Western Han Dynasty.The period is the transition of ancient Chinese to middle Chinese, and is also the most significant period of language evolution,therefore,to some extent, the book can reflect the language overview of this period,and can play an importmant role in language research.This paper seeks to describe the prepositions in detail which are appeared in XinXu(新序),to some extent,to reflect the language development in the Western Han period, while,to do a comparative study with the Pre-Qin Chinese,from the lasted point of view to find the law of preposition developments and preposition changes. This paper is divided into four chapters:Chapter I: Introduction.Introduction of the topics of research value, research status, research methods and materials used.Chapter II: An overview of preposition in XinXu(新序).Introduction of the preposition definition and classification in XinXu(新序).It is mainly because preposition comes from the verb nominally,these two will inevitably limit unknown;and preposition semantically mainly " preposition cited " function,so that preposition and conjunction entanglement unclear. Therefore,before do the study of prepositions in XinXu(新序),we should first establish the preposition standard of definition in Liu Xiang's(刘向) XinXu(新序).Thus,in the definition of preposition in the XinXu(新序),we should focus on the preposition and verb,preposition and conjunction distinction.On the base of a clear standard in XinXu(新序),the internal classification of prepositions in depth can be get.Under the guidance of these theories,we can began to classify the prepositions in XinXu(新序).Chapter III: Preposition analyses of XinXu(新序) To the prepositions of book in XinXu (新序) ,after exhaustive investigation, quantitative and qualitative analysis,and then to descripe each preposition from grammatical function and semantic function .There are 13 prepositions in XinXu (新序):yu(於),yu(于), hu(乎),yi(以),yu(与),wei(为),cong(从),ji(及),yin(因),you(由),zai(在), zi(自),xian(先).The main semantic function of preposition is "preposition cited", specific uses are: the introduction of the premises of the behavior,the introduction of the objects of the behavior,the introduction of the initiative of the behavior,the introduction of the reasons of the behavior ,the introduction of the scope of the behavior ,the introduction of the time of the behavior,with the introduction of movement behavior (including the tools,based,approach) and so on.The grammatical function of prepositions can analyze from these following four aspects:(1)According to the prepositional phrases's location and the relationship between the prepositional phrases and predicate,it will be divided into two parts: the preposition phrase placed before the adverbial;the preposition phrase placed after the adverbial. (2)According to the location of the preposition object,it will be divided into two parts: the object can appear before the preposition, and it can appear after the preposition.(3)According to the nature of the preposition object,the preposition object can be constituted by words and phrases,then to classify and descripe the preposition object. (4)According to the omission of preposition object,it will be divided into two parts: the object of the preposition can be omitted,the object of the preposition can not be omitted.Chapter IV: Conclusion. From these two parts of semantic function and grammatical function,we can do two tables about the 13 prepositions, which are appeared in XinXu(新序).Then,we can make a conclusion to the whole text.Based on these,do a simple comparison betweenx Pre-Qin chinese and the prepositions in XinXu(新序).In order to find the developments of prepositions in this book,and which have existed in Pre-Qin chinese.