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Theory and fact – A study of the translated Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period from the perspective of language contact

  • Hsiao-jung Yu
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Language Contact and Change in Chinese
This chapter is in the book Language Contact and Change in Chinese

Abstract

The Buddhist scriptures from the Medieval Period were primarily translated by Central Asian monks. There are certain special, inauthentic linguistic elements or features in the language of the translated scriptures. These are the result of imperfect learning of Chinese due to the interference of the mother tongues of these foreigners. The Chinese they used was essentially an intermediary language, or interlanguage. Borrowing and interference are two separate types of language contact that trigger grammatical changes. There are various mechanisms involved. In the language of the translated scriptures, of the elements and features borrowed from the original Sanskrit only found in the translated Buddhist scriptures, only some of the interference features have had an impact on Chinese syntactic development. Interference thus is the mode of language contact that causes language change in Chinese, and is the result of the foreigners’ imperfect acquisition of Chinese. These non-Chinese linguistic elements or interlanguage features were accepted into Chinese and triggered grammatical changes in Chinese.

Abstract

The Buddhist scriptures from the Medieval Period were primarily translated by Central Asian monks. There are certain special, inauthentic linguistic elements or features in the language of the translated scriptures. These are the result of imperfect learning of Chinese due to the interference of the mother tongues of these foreigners. The Chinese they used was essentially an intermediary language, or interlanguage. Borrowing and interference are two separate types of language contact that trigger grammatical changes. There are various mechanisms involved. In the language of the translated scriptures, of the elements and features borrowed from the original Sanskrit only found in the translated Buddhist scriptures, only some of the interference features have had an impact on Chinese syntactic development. Interference thus is the mode of language contact that causes language change in Chinese, and is the result of the foreigners’ imperfect acquisition of Chinese. These non-Chinese linguistic elements or interlanguage features were accepted into Chinese and triggered grammatical changes in Chinese.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Abbreviations IX
  5. Theory and fact – A study of the translated Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period from the perspective of language contact 1
  6. On the origin of the Chinese reflexive ziji from the perspective of the Medieval Chinese Buddhist scriptures 15
  7. The origin and development of negative exclusive particles in the Chinese language 41
  8. The postpositions suo 所 and bian 边 in translated Chinese Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period 75
  9. Variant reduplication and four-character state adjectives in Yuan Zaju 96
  10. The correlation between the Chinese purpose construction “VP + qu (去, ‘go’)” and SOV languages 125
  11. On the Han’er Yanyu of the Yuan Dynasty 149
  12. A study of the special syntactic features in Yuan baihua 168
  13. On the special syntactic features in the vernacular imperial edicts of the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1424) 191
  14. The influence of language contact on word order of some minority languages in Southern China 205
  15. Second language acquisition and contactinduced language change in the history of the Chinese language 237
  16. Postscript 254
  17. Index 255
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110612981-001

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Abbreviations IX
  5. Theory and fact – A study of the translated Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period from the perspective of language contact 1
  6. On the origin of the Chinese reflexive ziji from the perspective of the Medieval Chinese Buddhist scriptures 15
  7. The origin and development of negative exclusive particles in the Chinese language 41
  8. The postpositions suo 所 and bian 边 in translated Chinese Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period 75
  9. Variant reduplication and four-character state adjectives in Yuan Zaju 96
  10. The correlation between the Chinese purpose construction “VP + qu (去, ‘go’)” and SOV languages 125
  11. On the Han’er Yanyu of the Yuan Dynasty 149
  12. A study of the special syntactic features in Yuan baihua 168
  13. On the special syntactic features in the vernacular imperial edicts of the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1424) 191
  14. The influence of language contact on word order of some minority languages in Southern China 205
  15. Second language acquisition and contactinduced language change in the history of the Chinese language 237
  16. Postscript 254
  17. Index 255
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