Abstract
This investigation attempts to apply some of the hypotheses proposed with regard to a reconstructed verbal morphology in Archaic Chinese (Old Chinese) to the analysis of modal predication. The focus lies on the analysis of the morpho-syntactic constraints of the complement of the modal verb of possibility ‘可 kě‘possible, can’ in Early and Late Archaic Chinese. The objective of the study is to shed some light on the relation between modality and aspect and its possible reflection in the morphology of the complement of KE during a time when the derivational morphology of Chinese was possibly still transparent for the speaker; even though it may not have been productive anymore. It will be proposed that the complement of KE always consists of a complex vP including the features causativity and resultativity. Both features can, but do not have to be reflected in the morphology of the verbs in the complement of KE.
I am indebted to David Prager Branner for reviewing this paper.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Another variant with 與 yǔ > 可與 kěyǔ will also be excluded from the study. It is confined to a small number of verbs in its complement.
- 2.
Of the 79 instances of KE in the Shijing 19 (24%) involve YI, leading to the construction KE YI. Additionally, 6 instances show the combination of KE with the functional head 與 yǔ, in a function similar to YI.
- 3.
The more recent study on modal verbs by Wū 巫雪如, her unpublished PhD thesis, could unfortunately not be consulted yet.
- 4.
In the shijing, 79 instances of kě can be counted in contrast to 29 instances of néng.
- 5.
All modal verbs including KE appear frequently in combination with negation and in rhetorical questions. These are the syntactic environments, which trigger their development into deontic markers. KE in combination with double negation is particularly frequent and it is the predominant means to express strong obligation in LAC (Meisterernst 2017b).
- 6.
An exact syntactic analysis of NENG has not been proposed yet and it is not at issue in this paper.
- 7.
- 8.
For a discussion of the differences with regard to the modal 必 bì and the deontic modal verb 當 dāng see Meisterernst (2017a).
- 9.
For a discussion on the different analyses of this construction and the role of 以 yǐ see Meisterernst (2008a).
- 10.
For more discussion see Meisterernst (2017a) and Meisterernst (forthcoming). Telic (terminative verbs) include the endpoints of a situation in their structure. In Vendler’s (1967) classification, they are categorized as achievements and accomplishments. Atelic [-terminative] verbs do not include an endpoint in their temporal/aspectual structure; these are states and activities. Meisterernst (2015, 2016) applies this framework to the analysis of the aspectual structure of pre-modern Chinese and proposes a location of the telicity features in the Inner Aspect Phrase following Travis (2010).
- 11.
For a more extensive discussion and a comparison with Slavic languages see (Heindl 2009).
- 12.
Discussions on a morphological system of Archaic Chinese are exacerbated by the Chinese writing system, in which phonological alternations are not necessarily marked. Additionally, the Chinese morphology disappeared much earlier than in e.g. Tibetan and Burmese; it had been entirely lost at the time of the earliest Tibetan written documents (6th c. CE). According to Schuessler (2007: 41), even one of the youngest derivational morphemes, i.e. the suffix *-s, proposed in the literature (e.g. Jin 金理新 2006) as marker of the perfective aspect, had “become a general purpose device to derive any kind of word from another” in Archaic Chinese. For discussions on the existence of a morphological system in Chinese, see also Branner (2003), Harbsmeier (2016) to mention only a few.
- 13.
- 14.
Schuessler and Jin 金理新 thus reduce the multiple functions proposed before in the literature, e.g. in Downer (1959), which seemed to suggest that any kind of word can be derived by this suffix. In a recent article Jacques (2016) proposed different origins for the *s—suffix of Old Chinese. It is very well possible that the affixes of Old Chinese have different origins, which merged due to sound changes.
- 15.
Schuessler (2007: 40) argues that “Word classes like ‘noun’ are unmarked in CH, hence tone C (qùshēng) does not make a noun out of a verb, as is often maintained.” Derived qùshēng nouns were, in fact, originally verb forms, e.g. ‘resultant state’ (Jin 金理新 2006), or passive forms [Schuessler (exopassives by tone the suffix *-s = Tone C)] Wang 王月婷 also proposes an aspectual ‘perfective’ reading for guò in the qùshēng.
- 16.
This -s never occurs following coronal finals d n l r s. (In some older texts, a –d allomorph exists after coronal finals.).
- 17.
Jin 金理新 provides a number of different functions for the transitivizing *-s—suffix. These will be discussed when relevant with regard to the verbs in the complement of KE at issue in this paper.
- 18.
The Middle Chinese reconstructions follow Pulleyblank (1991). The verbs are being discussed below.
- 19.
For arguments against Mei’s 梅祖麟 proposal see (Jin 金理新 2006: 52f, 109), briefly discussed in Meisterernst (forthcoming), and Xing and Schuessler (forthcoming).
- 20.
An accomplishment is a causative telic event, which includes both the process and the result part in its event structure. An example is the English ‘run a mile’, which includes the running event and the endpoint of the running event indicated by the internal argument ‘a mile’.
- 21.
An achievement only refers to the endpoint. Unaccusative verbs such as ‘die’ are typical achievement verbs. In English, they are not compatible with duration phrases or the progressive aspect. By contrast, in LAC, they are compatible with duration phrases.
- 22.
- 23.
In the discussion on inseparable complex verbs, van Kemenade and Los (2003: 111) claim that “The prefix of an ICV (Inseparable Complex Verb) has grammaticalized even further, although the typical hallmarks of the resultative LCS are still recoverable: the prefix adds telic aktionsart (showing its origins as a Change-of-state predicate) and transitivity …” This characterization may also account for the features typical for parts of the derivational morphology of Archaic Chinese at issue in this investigation.
- 24.
The number of verbs which also appear with KE YI is considerably lower.
- 25.
The reconstruction is taken from Schuessler’s (2007) Simplified Old Chinese.
- 26.
LH refers to Late Han in Schuessler (2007) and C to the qùshēng.
- 27.
It also appears in its transitive default function in the complement of KE YI.
- 28.
A search in the Academia Sinica shànggǔ corpus shows 152 hits. Sometimes several instances are subsumed under one hit; this means that the actual number of occurrences may be higher. A number of the texts belong to the Early Middle Chinese period and not to the archaic (early or late) Chinese period. The same search with 可以 kě yǐ results in only one hit.
- 29.
It appears as a derivation of to 佣 ɦ-doŋ according to Jin (idem).
- 30.
In an example where it appears in the complement of kě, he analyzes it as having a theme subject (Jin 金理新 2006: 57).
- 31.
The search of wèi in the AS shànggǔ corpus results in 41 hits, many of them in the earlier texts, huái has 9 hits, also including earlier texts, ài has 7 hits, almost exclusively in later texts.
- 32.
A more comprehensive discussion of the two verbs appears in Xing and Schuessler (forthcoming).
- 33.
For an extensive discussion of 可謂 kě wèi see Liu 刘利 (2000: 86f). He additionally discusses the verb 勝 shèng ‘conquer, be victorious’ (2000: 101f), which also frequently appears in the complement of kě, but which is left out in the present discussion. Both verbs are characterized by the fact that they can be followed by another VP in the complement of KE.
- 34.
239 hits in the AS shànggǔ corpus, of those (25) in combination with yǐ 以 = kě yǐ.
- 35.
As Jacques (2016) points out, it cannot be excluded that the reconstructed *-s—suffix actually results from different sources.
- 36.
This verb is not discussed in Jin 金理新 (2006).
- 37.
Schuessler (2007) reconstructs an OMC *wak(h) or *wrak(h) for a nominal derivation of the verb ‘trap’.
- 38.
- 39.
David Branner pointed out the fact that kě occasionally appears as a transitive verb. He kindly provided the following example with translation:
(i) 行伯非賢晉文之能因時順宜隨而可之 (Yue Jueshu (越絕書·越絕篇敘外傳記))
‘Carrying out hegemonic rule is not a matter of sageliness. Because of the fact that Mən of Tsins was able to adapt to the times and to what people considered right behavior, as a result he made it permissible.’
However, in this example, kě clearly appears as a lexical verb, an adjective, which by default can be transitivized in either a causative or a denominative/putative sense in LAC. (See for instance Feng 2014). See also the discussion of bì in the complement of KE in example (28).
- 40.
This poses an interesting question with regard to the scope of the negative marker in modal predicates. The fact that fú would not be expected to negate KE, which is not transitive at any accounts, suggests that it is the verb in the complement of KE, which determines the choice of the negative marker. This would also have consequences on the interpretation of modal predicates negated by the aspectual negative marker wèi 未 and it would possibly change the analysis proposed e.g. in Meisterernst (2008b).
- 41.
For a discussion on this issue in LAC and EMC see Meisterernst (2016).
References
Abraham, Werner. 2009. The Urmasse of modality and its disincorporation. Based on modal verbs, particles and mood. Die Urmasse von Modalität und ihre Ausgliederung. Modalität anhand von Modalverben, Modalpartikel und Modus. Was ist das Gemeinsame, was das Trennende, und was steckt dahinter? In Modality, epistemicity, and evidentiality on modal verbs, adverbs, modal particles and mood. Modalität. Epistemik und Evidentialität bei Modalverb, Adverb, Modalpartikel und Modus, ed. Werner Abraham and Elisabeth Leiss, 251–302. Tübingen, Germany: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Abraham, Werner, and Elisabeth Leiss. 2008. Modality-aspect interfaces: implications and typological solutions. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Aldridge, Edith and Barbara Meisterernst. 2018. Resultative and termination: A unified analysis of Middle Chinese VP-YI. In Topics in Theoretical Asian linguistics, ed. Kunio Nishiyama, Hideki Kishimoto, and Edith Aldridge. John Benjamins.
Baxter, William H. 1992. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Trends in Linguistics 64. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Baxter, William H., and Laurent Sagart. 2014. Old Chinese reconstructions. Available at http://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu/BaxterSagartOCbyMandarinMC2014-09-20.pdf. Accessed May 25, 2018.
Branner, David P. 2003. On early Chinese morphology and its intellectual history. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Third Series) 13(1): 45–76.
Djamouri, Redouane. 1991. Particules de négation dans les inscriptions sur bronze de la dynastie des Zhou. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 20 (1): 5–76.
Downer, Gordon B. 1959. Derivation by tone-change in classical Chinese. Bulletin of the School of African and Oriental Studies 22 (2): 258–290.
Feng, Shengli. 2014. Light verb syntax between English and classical Chinese. In Chinese syntax in a cross-linguistic perspective, ed. Audrey Li, Andrew Simpson, and Dylan W-T Tsai, 229–250. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gassmann, Robert and Behr, Wolfgang. 2005. Grammatik des Antikchinesischen. Zürich: Peter Lang.
Harbsmeier, Christoph. 2016. Irrefutable conjectures. A review of William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart, Old Chinese. A new reconstruction. Monumenta Serica, 64(2): 445–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/02549948.2016.1259882.
Haudricourt, André G. 1954. Reconstruire le chinois archaïque. Word 10 (2–3): 351–364.
Heindl, Olga. 2009. Negation, Modalität und Aspekt im Mittelhochdeutschen im Vergleich zum Slawischen. In: Modalität. Epistemik und Evidentialität bei Modalverb, Adverb, Modalpartikel und Modus, ed. Werner Abraham and Elisabeth Leiss, 251–302. Tübingen, Germany: Stauffenburg Verlag.
Huang, James C.-T. 2014. On Syntactic analyticity and parametric theory. In Chinese syntax in a cross-linguistic perspective, ed. Audrey Li, Andrew Simpson, and Dylan W-T Tsai, 1–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Huang, Kunyao 黃坤堯. 1992. A new investigation into verbs and pronunciation in jingdian shiwen 經典釋文動詞異讀新探. Taipei: Student Book.
Jackendoff, R. 1990. Semantic Structures. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Jacques, Guillaume. 2016. How many *s-suffixes in old Chinese? Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 9: 205–217.
Jin, Lixin 金理新. 2006. A study of old Chinese morphology上古汉语形态研究. Hefei, China: Huangshan Publishing House.
Karlgren, Bernhard. 1933. Word families in Chinese. Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 5: 9–120.
Kiefer, Ferenc. 2010. Areal-typological aspects of word-formation: The case of aktionsart-formation in German, Hungarian, Slavic, Baltic, Romani and Yiddish. In Variation and change in morphology: Selected papers from the 13th International Morphology Meeting, Vienna, February 2008, ed. Franz Rainer, Wolfgang U Dressler, Dieter Kastovsky, and Hans C Luschützky, 129–148. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Leiss, Elisabeth. 2008. The silent and aspect-driven patterns of deonticity and epistemicity: A chapter in diachronic typology. In Modality-aspect interfaces: Implications and typological solutions, ed. Werner Abraham and Elisabeth Leiss, 15–41. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co.
Li, Ming, 李明. 2001. The historical development of Chinese modal auxiliary verbs 漢語助動詞的歷史發展. PhD diss., Peking University, Beijing.
Liu, Li 刘利. 2000. A study of modal auxiliary verbs in Pre-Qin Chinese 先秦漢語助動詞研究. Beijing: Beijing Shifan daxue chubanshe.
Lu, Deming 陸德明 (Tang). 1985. Annotations on the classics 經典釋文. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe.
McFadden, Thomas. 2015. Preverbal ge- in Old and Middle English. In Byproducts and side effects: Nebenprodukte und Nebeneffekte (ZAS Papers in Linguistics 58), ed. André Meinunger, 15–48. Berlin.
Mei, Guang 梅廣. 2015. An outline of Ancient Chinese grammar 上古漢語語法綱要. Taipei: San Min Book.
Mei, Tsu-lin 梅祖麟. 1980. Temporal strata in derivation by the four tones 四声别义中的时间层次. Studies of the Chinese Language 中国语文 6: 427–443. Reprinted (2000) in Collection of linguistic articles by Mei Zulin 梅祖麟語言學論文集 2000: 306–339, Běijīng: Shāngwù yìnshūguǎn.
Mei, Tsu-lin 梅祖麟. 1988. Three examples of internal reconstruction in Chinese 内部拟构汉语三例. Studies of the Chinese Language 中国语文 204(3): 169–181.
Mei, Tsu-lin. 2015. Proto-Sino-Tibetan morphology and its modern Chinese correlates. In Oxford handbook of Chinese Linguistics, ed. William S-Y. Wang and Chaofen Sun, 58–67. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meisterernst, Barbara. 2008a. Modal verbs in Han period Chinese Part I: The syntax and semantics of kě 可 and kěyǐ 可 以. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 37 (1): 85–120.
Meisterernst, Barbara. 2008b. Negative Markers in combination with the modal auxiliary verbs kě 可 and kěyǐ 可 以. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 37 (2): 197–222.
Meisterernst, Barbara. 2015. Tense and aspect in Han period Chinese: A linguistic study of the ‘Shiji’. Berlin: DeGruyter.
Meisterernst, Barbara. 2016. The syntax of aspecto-temporal adverbs from late archaic to early medieval Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 25 (2): 143–181. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-015-9140-3.
Meisterernst, Barbara. 2017a. Modality and aspect and the role of the subject in late archaic and Han period Chinese: Obligation and necessity. Lingua Sinica 3: 10.
Meisterernst, Barbara. 2017b. Possibility and necessity and the scope of negation in early middle Chinese. Paper presented at the Linguistic Society of the University of Washington. October 6, 2017.
Meisterernst, Barbara. A new approach on the development of deontic markers in pre-modern Chinese. In Typological regularity of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization, ed. Janet Xing (in preparation for publication by DeGruyter).
Peyraube, Alain. 1999. The modal auxiliaries of possibility in Classical Chinese. In Selected Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Chinese Linguistics, ed. Tsao Fengfu, Wang Samuel und Lien Chinfa, 27–52. Taipei: The Crane Publishing Co. Ltd.
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1973. Some further evidence regarding old Chinese-s and its time of disappearance. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36 (2): 368–373.
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1983. Stages in the transcription of Indian words from Han to Tang. In Sprachen des Buddhismus in Zentralasien [Languages of Buddhism in Central Asia], ed. Klaus Röhrborn and Wolfgang Veenker, 73–102. Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz.
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1991. Lexicon of reconstruction pronunciation. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1995. Outline of classical chinese grammar. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Ramchand, Gillian. 2008. Verb meaning and the lexicon: A first phase syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sagart, Laurent. 1999. The roots of old Chinese. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Sagart, Laurent. 2004. The Chinese names of the four directions. Journal of the American Oriental Society 124 (1): 69–76.
Saxena, Anju. 1997. Aspect and evidential morphology in Standard Lhasa Tibetan: A diachronic study. Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale 26 (2): 281–306.
Schuessler, Axel. 2007. ABC etymological dictionary of old Chinese. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
Streitberg, Wilhelm. 1891. Perfective und imperfective Actionsart im Germanischen. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur (PBB) 15: 70–177.
Spencer, A. and M. Zaretskaya. 1998. Verb prefixation in Russian as lexical subordination.
Sybesma, Rint. 1994. The diachronics of verb-le in Chinese: Where does the perfective semantics come from? In IIAS yearbook, ed. Paul van der Velde, 35–44. Leiden, Germany: International Institute for Asian Studies.
Travis, Lisa Demean. 2010. Inner Aspect. The articulation of VP. In Studies in natural language and linguistic theory. Dordrecht: Springer.
Unger, Ulrich. 1983. Hao ku 好古: Sinological circular. Early China 9 (10): 169–174.
van Kemenade, Ans, and Bettelou Los. 2003. Particles and prefixes in Dutch and English. In Yearbook of morphology, ed. Geert Booij and Jaap van Marle, 79–118. Dordrecht: Springer.
Vendler, Zeno. 1967. Linguistics and philosophy, 1st ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Wang, Yueting. 王月婷. 2014. An analysis of the rules of tone change of the different readings in “Jingdian shiwen” “經典釋文”異讀音義規律研究. Beijing: Academy of Social Sciences.
Xing, Janet, and Axel Schuessler. forthcoming. Semantic extension in Old Chinese: Direction, transitivity, and voice. In Typological regularity of semantic change in grammaticalization and lexicalization, ed. Janet Xing (in preparation for publication by DeGruyter).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Peking University Press and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Meisterernst, B. (2019). A New Approach on the Modal KE 可 and the Relation Between the Aspectual and the Modal System in Archaic Chinese. In: Meisterernst, B. (eds) New Perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics. Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics, vol 5. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1948-8_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1948-8_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1947-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1948-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)