Field Report on Classical Chinese: Tense and AspectGrammatical Traditions in ChineseShijiOther time wordsFuture explorationsField Report on Classical Chinese: Tense and AspectMichael Thomas夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫fu2 dao4 wei4 shi3 you3 feng, yan2 wei4 shi3 you3 chang2“The Way has never had borders, saying has never had norms.” -Zhuang Zi circa 500 CEGrammatical Traditions in Chinese夫夫夫 yu3 qi4 ci2“modal particles” in traditional Chinese grammarsShijiWritten just before the transition to middle Chinese, before the introduction of Buddhism which caused a radical change in the languagewith the translation of 50,000,000 characters from the sutras.Written in ‘literary’ Chinese, which means modeled after the classics, mainly Confucius, and containing many classical elements.Contains a variety of genres from narrative to poetic.From: Ssuma Chi'en, Records of the Grand Historian of China, Vol II, trans Burton Watson, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), , repr. In Mark A.Kishlansky, ed., Sources of World History, Volume I, (New York: HarperCollins College Publishers), 1995, pp. 88-91[Kishlansky Introduction] Ssuma Ch'ien (ca. 145-85 BCE) was an official at theHan court during its greatest era. His father had served in the office of Grand Historian and Ssu-ma Ch'ien succeeded to it after his father's death in 110 BCE. The Grand Historian was responsible both for establishing and maintaining the royal calendar (the method of numbering the years of the dynasty) and for composing a record of the principal events of the reign. Thus Ssuma Ch'ien had trained as an astronomer as well as a historian and he was responsible for an important reorganization of the Chinese calendar. His Records of the Grand Historian went far beyond the conventional listing of court appointments and events in the life of the imperial family. Ssuma Ch'ien believed that with the accession of the Emperor Wu Ti, the Han dynasty had reached its apex and he decided to write a history of of the dynasty as a whole. He divided his work into a chronology, a description of Han government, and a long biographical section in which the lives and deeds of great men were recorded. Ssu-ma Ch'ien believed that history was adidactic subject, that it should teach lessons and reveal the values of the society being remembered. This method is clearly seen in his biographical sketches, like those of Pu Shih and Chi An, which follow.Sima Qian on His own Castrationfrom W. T. Bary and W. T. Chan, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, (New York:Columbia University Press, 1960), pp. 272-273 When he incurred the anger ofthe Emperor Wu Ti for defending a general in 98 BCE. Sima was condemned to be castrated, which as well as being painful, also incurred great shame. Sima chose not to commit an honorable suicide and provided an explanation.A man has only one death. That death may be as weighty as Mount T'ai, or itmay be as light as a goose feather. It all depends upon the wav he uses it...It is the nature of every man to love life and hate death, to think of his relativesand look after his wife and children. Only when a man is moved by higher principles is this not so. Then there are things which he must do....The brave man does not always die for honor, while even the coward may fulfill his duty. Each takes a different way to exert himself. Though I might be weak and cowardly and seek shamefully to prolong my life, yet I know full well the difference between what ought to be followed and what rejected. How could I bring myself to sink into the shame of ropes and bonds if even the lowest slave and scullery maid can bear to commit suicide, why should not one like myself be able to do what has to be done? But the reason I have not refused to bear these ills and have continued to live, dwelling among this filth, is that I grieve that I have things in my heart that I have not been able to express fully, and I am shamed to think that after I am gone my writings will not be known to posterity.I too have ventured not to be modest but have entrusted myself to my useless writings. I have gathered up and brought together the old traditions of the world which were scattered and lost. I have examined the deeds and events of the past and investigated the principles behind their success and failure, their rise and decay, in one hundred and thirty chapters. I wished to examine into all that concerns heaven and man, to penetrate the changes of the past and present, completing all the work of one family. But before I had finished my rough manuscript, I met with this calamity. It is because I regretted that it had not been completed that I submitted to the extreme penalty without rancor. When I have truly completed this work, I shall depositit in some safe place. If it may be handed down to men who will appreciate it and penetrate to the villages and great cities, then though I should suffer a thousand mutilations, what regret would I have?Tense and Aspect in Classical and Han Literary Chinese.There’s no tense system... but what does that mean?夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫fu2 dao4 wei4 shi3 you3 feng, yan2 wei4 shi3 you3 chang2great Way NOT begin EXISTborders“The Way has never had borders, saying has never had norms.” -Zhuang Zi circa 500 CEWhy don’t we translate this sentence as “The Way doesn’t yet have borders, saying doesn’t yet have norms.”? Or, “The Way didn’t ever have borders, saying didn’t ever have norms.”?If the language truly has no tense system, how are situations oriented ona timeline strictly in terms of aspect, i.e transitions and states?Aspectually, the sentence can be abstractly described as denoting “The Way doesn’t initiate the state of having borders.”State:Way has borders-[t begin ]It makes no explicit statement about where on the timeline this is relevant. That has to be interpreted through discourse-pragmatic considerations.Sentential Aspectfrom ex. 46 (Meisterenst)夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫夫 夫 夫夫夫 夫夫夫ling wang wen tai zi lu zhi si yeLing king hear crownprince Lu GEN death FINWhat’s ‘si’ here? Is it a noun or a verb?也 and 也 as imperfective/perfective markers也 ye , compatible with 夫 wei夫 also functions as an ‘equational’ marker – this usage often found in dictionaries and text annotations.X,Y 夫夫 also performs a number of other functions, the relation, if any, to its function as an