Abstract
When modifying the predicate components, the preposition-object structures in Mozi are mainly after predicate components, with relevant example sentences accounting for approximately 58.1% of the total. The prepositions that can appear only before predicate components are Wei(为), Cong(从), Yin(因), You(由), Yong(用), Yu(与) and Dang(当). The prepositions that can appear only after predicate components are Hu(乎/虖) and Zai(在). The prepositions that can appear both before and after predicate components are Yu(於), Yi(以), Zi(自), Yu(于) and Zhi(至). The preposition-object structures expressing space-time and involvement tend to be postpositive, while the preposition-object structures expressing method tend to be prepositive. Predicate components modified by preposition-object structures include words and phrases. When verb-object structures serve as the predicate, there is little difference between the number of prepositive and postpositive preposition-object structures. When other structures act as the predicate, the preposition-object structures are mainly postpositive. The most common number of syllables is two syllables (approximately 42.4%) when the preposition-object structure is prepositive and one syllable (approximately 57.3%) when the preposition-object structure is postpositive. Compared with Zuozhuan, the number of prepositive preposition-object structures in Mozi is increasing, which may reflect the change of Chinese means of expression from “abstract principles” to “iconic principles”.
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Notes
- 1.
“Preposition-object structures indicating where they are and where they are from can be placed after verbs rather than only before verbs” is “the only important difference between classical Chinese and vernacular”, cf. Zhao Y.R.: A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Commercial Press, Beijing (1979).
- 2.
Almost all Yi(以)-object structures expressing roles are “Yi(以)…Wei(为)” structures or “Yi(以)…Yi(以)Wei(为)” structures, whose meaning is “take… as…”.
- 3.
When determining whether a predicate component is a polysyllabic word, we also refers to Guirong Wang, Gaoqi Rao, and Endong Xun(2019).
- 4.
In (71), the verb “为” (draw) is omitted in “直以绳” (straight with line) and “正以县” (perpendicular with pendulum).
- 5.
In this table, parentheses indicate omission, (monosyllabic word) “means the monosyllabic word is omitted”, (verb) object “means that the verb is omitted in verb-object phrases”, and (verb object) “indicates the omission of verb-object phrases”.
- 6.
See the data of Zuozhuan. Wang H.B.: A study on prepositions in Chunqiu Zuozhuan. Doctor, Fudan University (2003).
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Acknowledgments
This research is sponsored by the National Social Science Fund of China (No. 20BYY137).
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Yang, J., Ke, Y. (2023). A Study on the Positional Relationship Between Preposition-Object Structures and Predicate Components in Mozi Based on Corpus. In: Su, Q., Xu, G., Yang, X. (eds) Chinese Lexical Semantics. CLSW 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13495. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28953-8_31
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