Title: On the Function of "Yu "(于/於) Between Verb and Noun in Old Chinese
Abstract: Yu(于/於) is one of the most requently used functional words in old Chinese. Previous studies listed many uses of Yu(于/於), that seem to be very complicated. In this paper, we put forward a unified interpretation of Yu(于/於). Semantically,Yu(于/於) can be seen as a marker of non-patient roles, and it can introduce various nominal elements related to the verb except for typical patient. Syntactically, Yu(于/於) can be seen as a marker of non-object constituents, and all the nominal elements introduced by Yu(于/於) can not be analyzed as objects. The constituent comprising Yu(于/於) and nominal elements is located at V level, and it functions as adjunct. The existence of Yu(于/於) shows that the distinction between objects and non-objects was critical in old Chinese. The declination of Yu(于/於) after the Han Dynasty(汉) promoted the development of various kinds of semantic case markers and the lexicalization of verb-object compounds.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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