A Disquisition Of Chinese Word Class Categoried By Modern Western Missionaries

This paper focuses on the research on the Chinese word class categoried by western Missionaries, which takes three missionaries-Joseph, Marshman and Edkinsas study objects, studying and analyzing the results of their research on Chinese word class. This paper also compares the research on Chinese word class between western Missionaries and traditional Chinese, analyzing the different concepts of Chinese word class between Chinese and Western people and the promotion the missionaries had made in the process of Chinese language study.Based on the premise that studying Chinese word class within the framework of Indo-European grammar and combine the unique property of Chinese itself, the study system of the three missionaries can be traced to the same origin,but their Chinese word class study has its own characteristics. This paper explores the work and achievement of the three missionaries’research on Chinese word class from three aspects-the visual angle, the standard and the outcome of the devision of Chinese word class. This paper takes MaShiWenTong and the New Chinese Grammar as the representatives of traditional Chinese study on word class to explore the relationship between traditional Chinese study and western missionary study on Chinese word class.