Modern Chinese auxiliary words

Author: Cao Guangshun
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: This book, through extensive and detailed materials and clear arguments, has made many original contributions to the study of modern Chinese particles. It can be considered a work that follows the footsteps of predecessors and improves upon them. How the research achievements in this book are, the readers will naturally understand and evaluate after reading it, and I need not say more. What I think I can introduce to the readers is some of the distinctive features of its research methods.
First, the book reflects a relatively rigorous academic attitude. Documentary materials are the foundation of modern Chinese studies. In this 150,000-character book, the author cites over 120 documents from more than ten genres, including anecdotal novels, Zen and Confucian dialogues, transformed texts, Buddhist scriptures, and colloquial translations. The selected materials are mostly works with strong colloquial characteristics, accurate dates, and reliable versions. The materials are extensive yet refined, and the conclusions drawn are naturally free from biases caused by the materials. Before reaching conclusions, the author conducts extensive investigations into the documents. For example, to examine the usage and evolution of the "verb + ten" structure after the Tang Dynasty, he conducts exhaustive surveys of multiple documents such as Complete Tang Poems (16 volumes), Zutangji, Dunhuang Transformed Texts, Er Cheng Ji, and Zhuzi Yulu (10 volumes). To illustrate the usage of the three formats "verb + le + object," "verb + le + object," and "verb + que + object" in the Song Dynasty, he also conducts exhaustive surveys of relevant documents from more than twenty Song Dynasty poets and Zen masters. These large-scale exhaustive statistical surveys provide a solid foundation for the author's conclusions and also reflect his serious and pragmatic academic attitude.
Second, previous studies of particles often focused on the examination of the meaning and usage of individual words. Cao Guangshun, however, pays more attention to grammatical formats, placing particles within specific grammatical frameworks to study their emergence, development, and decline. For example, in his research on dynamic particles, he argues that the "verb + que + object" format led to the emergence of the completed-state particle "que," while the "verb + le + object" format was the result of the lexical replacement of completed-state particles. In his study of resultant particles, he believes that the widespread existence of the "verb + le + object" and "verb + que + object" completed-state sentence structures in the Tang Dynasty created the necessary conditions for the emergence of the new format "verb + que + object + le," thus paving the way for the appearance of the resultant particle "le." And so on. Examining particles from the perspective of grammatical formats makes it easier to clarify the process of their emergence and changes, as well as to reveal the background and reasons behind these changes. This approach is more effective than studying them solely based on the usage of individual words.
Third, while Cao Guangshun conducts individual studies of particles, he consciously places each particle within the broader context of the modern Chinese grammatical system and particle system to examine their semantic and functional influences on one another, the constraints imposed by the system, and the role of dialects and historical and cultural backgrounds in their formation and development. He strives to describe the causes and processes of the emergence and development of particles as historically as possible. Although the author's efforts in this regard are still preliminary, they should be helpful for further in-depth research.