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Almost all lexemes in Classical Chinese are individual characters one spoken syllable in length. This contrasts with modern Chinese dialects where two-syllable words are extremely common. Chinese has acquired many polysyllabic words in order to disambiguate monosyllabic words that sounded different in earlier forms of Chinese but identical in one region or another during later periods. Because Classical Chinese is based on the literary examples of ancient Chinese literature, it has almost none of the two-syllable words present in modern varieties of Chinese.
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Classical Chinese has more pronouns compared to the modern vernacular. In particular, whereas Mandarin has one general character to refer to the first-person pronoun, Literary Chinese has several, many of which are used as part of honorific language, and several of which have different grammatical uses (first-person collective, first-person possessive, etc.).[citation needed]
In syntax, Classical Chinese words are not restrictively categorized into parts of speech: nouns used as verbs, adjectives used as nouns, and so on. There is no copula in Classical Chinese; 是 (shì) is a copula in modern Chinese but in old Chinese it was originally a near demonstrative ('this'), the modern Chinese equivalent of which is 這 (zhè).[citation needed]
Beyond grammar and vocabulary differences, Classical Chinese can be distinguished by literary and cultural differences: an effort to maintain parallelism and rhythm, even in prose works, and extensive use of literary and cultural allusions, thereby also contributing to brevity.
Many final particles (歇語字; xiēyǔzì) and[1] interrogative particles are found in Literary Chinese.[2]
Char. | Function | Example |
---|---|---|
而 | Conjunction
|
學而時習之,不亦悅乎。 |
Pronoun
|
||
Alternative for 'can' 能 | ||
何 | Pronoun, often before the modal particles 哉 and 也 | |
|
||
Adverb, or used in the first sentence before the verb, that question can be translated as 'how' 怎麼 | ||
乎 | Preposition
|
|
Modal particle expressing doubt, praise, surprise, or to highlight the word in front | ||
Expresses a question when placed at the end of a phrase | 人不知而不慍,不亦君子乎。 | |
乃 | Preposition
|
|
Modal particle expressing doubt, praise, surprise, or to highlight the word in front | ||
Expresses a question when placed at the end of a phrase | ||
爾 |
|
乃懼,復造善脈者診之。 |
Pronoun
|
||
爲 | Preposition, that the object, which is equivalent to 'substitute for', 'give', 'once upon a time', 'opposed', 'with', 'with regards to' | |
Preposition pointed out that the reason for the equivalent of 'because' | ||
Preposition, that the passive, which is equivalent to 'be' | ||
Verb
|
||
Preposition
|
||
Modal particle, often with the pronouns 何 or 焉 | ||
焉 | Tone for the end of the sentence, equivalent to 啊 or 呢 | 生而有疾惡焉,順是,故殘賊生而忠信亡焉。 |
Tone of the words express a standstill for the sentence | ||
Pronoun
|
||
Pronoun equivalent to
|
||
以 | Preposition indicating reason equivalent to 'in order to'. Originally derived from a noun meaning 'reason'. | 故常無欲,以觀其妙。 |
Preposition indicating means
|
殺人以挺與刃,有以異乎? | |
Preposition introducing action, where activity takes place within a certain period and location, equivalent to 'at', 'from' | 文以五月五日生。 | |
Conjunction to indicate juxtaposition, a linked relationship, objective, or causality; similar to 而. | 談笑以死。 | |
其 | Third-person possessive pronoun | 未有仁而遺其親者也。 |
Modal particle expressing doubt or possibility | 其無後乎? | |
Modal particle expressing a softened imperative: an exhortation or wish (rather than a command) | 其無廢先君之功! | |
且 |
|
|
若 |
|
夕惕若厲。 |
所 | 'that which' | |
也 | Used at the end of the sentence to provide a positive, emphasizing or doubtful tone. If used within the sentence, indicates a pause to delay the mood. | 其西有大山,天下至高者也。 |
因 |
|
為高必因丘陵。 |
于 | Preposition for place, reason; expression of action behaviour and the introduction of premises, time, motion, target, location, relationship between people, introduction to the object of comparison or analogy. | |
與 |
|
|
則 | Conjunction
|
|
者 | Particle referring to people, objects, times, locations, etc. When placed after the subject, indicates a slight pause, or expresses determination. | |
之 | Third-person object pronoun | 民不畏死,奈何以死懼之? |
Near demonstrative pronoun, 'this' | 之子于歸,宜其室家。This lady goes to her marriage, befitting for her chamber and house. | |
Possessive marker for personal pronouns similar to modern 的. | 孫子曰:兵者,國之大事,死生之地,存亡之道,不可不察也。 | |
Nominalization marker inserted between subject and predicate to convert a clause into a noun phrase. Can be thought of as an extension of (2) above. | 喜怒哀樂之動乎中,必見乎外。 | |
Transitive verb 'to go' | 吾欲之南海,如何? | |
曰 | Speech indicator similar to 'says' or 'said' | 翁笑曰:平昔不相往還,何由遺魂吾家?The old man laughed and said, "In normal days we don't have much of a relation, why would you want to call back the dead's soul in my house?" |
亦 | 'also', 'too' | |
故 |
|
何以故? |
將 | Adverb
|
將入門。 |
矣 | Particle indicating completion | 否則我終泯而子亦不起矣。 |
蓋 | Sentence-initial particle indicating uncertainty | 蓋莫之爲而爲者天。 |
猶 |
|
想彼念卿亦猶卿念彼。 |
As with function words, there are many differences between the content words of Classical Chinese and those of Baihua. Below are synonyms used in the two registers. Some Classical Chinese words can have more than one meaning.
However, Classical Chinese words still exist among many chengyu, or Chinese idioms.
The Classical Chinese words and examples will be written in traditional characters, and the modern vernacular will be written in both simplified and traditional characters.
Classical Chinese word | Part of speech | Baihua word
(simplified) |
Baihua word
(traditional) |
Meaning | Classical Chinese example | Baihua translation (simplified) | Baihua translation (traditional) | English meaning |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
日 | noun | 太阳[3] | 太陽 | sun | 雲開見日[4] | 拔开云雾,见到太阳。[4] | 拔開雲霧,見到太陽。 | The clouds opened and the sun shone through.[4] |
目 | noun | 眼睛[3] | 眼睛 | eye | 每毙一人掩其目[5] | 因此每射杀一个人,都会闭上眼睛不忍直视。[5] | 因此每射殺一個人,都會閉上眼睛不忍直視。 | Whenever he killed a man, he covered his eyes.[5] |
虎 | noun | 老虎 | 老虎 | tiger | 不入虎穴焉得虎子[6] | 不敢进入虎穴,就不能捉到老虎的崽子。[citation needed] | 不敢進入虎穴,就不能捉到老虎的崽子。 | One may only catch the tiger cub by entering the tiger's den.[6] |
犬 | noun | 狗 | 狗 | dog | 一犬吠形,百犬吠聲[7] | 一只狗看到影子叫起来,很多狗也跟着乱叫。[citation needed] | 一隻狗看到影子叫起來,很多狗也跟著亂叫。 | One barking dog sets all the street abark.[7] |
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