The postpositions suo 所 and bian 边 in translated Chinese Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period
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Changcai Zhao
Abstract
In the translated Chinese Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period, suo 所 and bian 边 can be used in two structures: “PREP + NP suo/bian + VP” or “VP + PREP + NP suo/bian”. When the NP is a noun that primarily refers to a person’s identity or a pronoun, suo and bian have been grammaticalized into postpositions that refer to object argument from the localizer word and have gained case marker function through metonymy and reanalysis. This usage of suo and bian is not only the result of the evolution of Chinese relative components, but is also influenced by some of the classic language from the original scriptures.
Abstract
In the translated Chinese Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period, suo 所 and bian 边 can be used in two structures: “PREP + NP suo/bian + VP” or “VP + PREP + NP suo/bian”. When the NP is a noun that primarily refers to a person’s identity or a pronoun, suo and bian have been grammaticalized into postpositions that refer to object argument from the localizer word and have gained case marker function through metonymy and reanalysis. This usage of suo and bian is not only the result of the evolution of Chinese relative components, but is also influenced by some of the classic language from the original scriptures.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword V
- Contents VII
- List of Abbreviations IX
- Theory and fact – A study of the translated Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period from the perspective of language contact 1
- On the origin of the Chinese reflexive ziji from the perspective of the Medieval Chinese Buddhist scriptures 15
- The origin and development of negative exclusive particles in the Chinese language 41
- The postpositions suo 所 and bian 边 in translated Chinese Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period 75
- Variant reduplication and four-character state adjectives in Yuan Zaju 96
- The correlation between the Chinese purpose construction “VP + qu (去, ‘go’)” and SOV languages 125
- On the Han’er Yanyu of the Yuan Dynasty 149
- A study of the special syntactic features in Yuan baihua 168
- On the special syntactic features in the vernacular imperial edicts of the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1424) 191
- The influence of language contact on word order of some minority languages in Southern China 205
- Second language acquisition and contactinduced language change in the history of the Chinese language 237
- Postscript 254
- Index 255
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword V
- Contents VII
- List of Abbreviations IX
- Theory and fact – A study of the translated Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period from the perspective of language contact 1
- On the origin of the Chinese reflexive ziji from the perspective of the Medieval Chinese Buddhist scriptures 15
- The origin and development of negative exclusive particles in the Chinese language 41
- The postpositions suo 所 and bian 边 in translated Chinese Buddhist scriptures of the Medieval Period 75
- Variant reduplication and four-character state adjectives in Yuan Zaju 96
- The correlation between the Chinese purpose construction “VP + qu (去, ‘go’)” and SOV languages 125
- On the Han’er Yanyu of the Yuan Dynasty 149
- A study of the special syntactic features in Yuan baihua 168
- On the special syntactic features in the vernacular imperial edicts of the early Ming Dynasty (1368–1424) 191
- The influence of language contact on word order of some minority languages in Southern China 205
- Second language acquisition and contactinduced language change in the history of the Chinese language 237
- Postscript 254
- Index 255
