Research Of The Grammatical Studies In The Colloquial Language Of Northern China By Jasper Scudder McIlvaine

This dissertation leads a special study on the an elementary Chinese textbook,Grammatical Studies in the Colloquial Language of Northern China,especially designed for the use of missionaries,firstly published in 1880 and written in English by Jasper Scudder McIlvaine,missionary of Presbyterian Church in the United States of America?North?in 19^thcentury.Six chapters comprise this dissertation:The first chapter expatiates the significance of the selected topic.Then the theories,methods adopted as well as the sources of the references shall be showed in this chapter.The life experiences of Jasper,along with the writing background,the arrangement style,the intentions and the predecessors'influence of this book will all be introduced in the second chapter to explore the editorial idea.The third chapter shall analyze its teaching of lexical category,covering nouns,numeratives,numerals,adjectives,pronouns and verbs.Based of the contents and arrangement of the book,analysis will concern the details of various grammars and pragmatic function of teaching,trying to conclude the teaching view of Jasper.The fourth chapter analyzes the syntax of the book from three aspects of sentence patterns,sentence constructions and sentence types.Four hundred example sentences have been counted from the whole book and all the materials have been classified into three categories according to sentence pattern.Firstly analysis gives attention to the proportion of simple sentence and compound sentence;then on the basis of special marks of sentences,the emphasis of sentence constructions is put on the“shi”sentence?“?”???,existential sentence,comparative sentence,“ba”sentence?“?”???and“bei”sentence?“?”???;the third step is about the imperative question and imperative sentences in the light of mood,to which careful analysis including sources,number,edition and teaching features of the sentences will be given;the last part is to expound the idea of comparative teaching view between mother tongue and target tongue by comparing the usage of“suo”?“?”??and attributive clauses.The fifth chapter firstly sticks to a view that Jasper and his book deserve much more attention in the research of history of American Sinology and then gives a summary of the dissertation,making a basic evaluation of advantages,disadvantages and features of the book in accordance of the location,arrangement and source of materials.