上古汉语使动句式研究－以《左传》为例 = A study on the causative constructions in archaic Chinese : illustrated by Zuo Zhuan

• Main Author: Lee, Ing Chye
• Other Authors: Phua Chiew Pheng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Education::Chinese
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54962
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The verb-complement construction (VC construction) served as an important symbol in the distinction between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese. And this produces the motivation for scholars to study on the era in which VC construction first appeared and the reason behind its emergence. On the former topic, Mei’s (1991) research had made the diverging viewpoints of the academia to reach a consensus. On the later topic, there is still room for exploration. According to Wang’s (2006) research, it prompted to us that causative construction in Archaic Chinese was the predecessor of the VC construction. Therefore, to solve for the reason behind the emergence of VC construction, we would have to first understand the systemic of causative construction in Archaic Chinese. The existing research could not help reveal the systemic of causative construction in Archaic Chinese, because scholars had mainly focused on the syntactic description. In addition, the classification of the verbs in question was not precise enough and some of the judgments were problematic. Thus, there is need to re-explore the causative construction in Archaic Chinese. This paper aims to reveal the systemic of causative construction in Archaic Chinese, grounded in typological tradition. Only on this basis can we help determine the reason behind the emergence of VC construction.