Research on the Origin and Cause of Chinese Copula ""

Author: Xiao Yaman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: According to the grammatical classification of modern Chinese, the copula "is" is a very special word—it is neither like ordinary words nor like ordinary grammatical words. Grammatical words are relative to lexical words, representing a classification based on semantic and grammatical function. Grammatical words have no actual meaning; they only possess grammatical meaning or functional meaning. Lexical words, on the other hand, have concrete meaning. The classification of grammatical words and lexical words largely corresponds to the early Chinese distinction between empty words () and substantive words (), which was based on the (actual or non-actual) of meaning. Therefore, grammatical words are often directly regarded as empty words. The Chinese copula "is" has no actual meaning, which aligns with the characteristics of empty words; however, an important grammatical feature of empty words is that they cannot stand alone as sentence components, whereas the copula "is" primarily functions as the predicate, which does not align with the characteristics of empty words. Since the copula "is" primarily functions as the predicate and its grammatical function is similar to that of transitive verbs, grammarians have classified it as a lexical word. However, it lacks concrete meaning and differs significantly from other lexical words, so historically, it was sometimes referred to as a "homonymous word." This book will treat it as a grammatical word and employ relevant grammatical theories to conduct a study on it.