K. M. A. BARNETT
Appendix I applies this method of analysis to phrases with the word JHAT. This includes the uses with measure-words and classifiers, but it far from exhausts the uses of this little word, the first in the Chinese dictionary. I am told that in WRONQ WRANN-NGRR (WANG Yun-wu)87's great dictionary, still unpublished, there were more than a million entries under this word.
And before we leave the subject of nouns may I draw your attention to the diagram at Fig. 1, which tries to show graphically the various states of a thing-word as identified in Chinese (outer ring) and English (inner ring).
And to prepare us for the next topic: verbs, or become-words, I have attempted a much more ambitious presentation at Fig. 2 showing by means of two wheels, that on the left for the aspects from inception clockwise to completion, and from thought in the centre to realization; that on the right for tense, mood and degree of certainty, the movement in time (outermost ring) being from past on the left clockwise to future on the right; certainty (inner- most ring) in the reverse direction; and mood outwards from the wish in the centre, through command to statement or report: or as we might say from gerund through imperative to indicative.
Reducing four dimensions to two was not easy, and it doesn't quite come off. I shall be delighted if anyone will improve on it.
The verb is the essence of living Chinese. I call it the become-word, because a large class of what we would call adjec- tives behave syntactically just as though they were verbs; as they do in Japanese, and in the Semitic languages. There is also very free movement of nouns into this class, and the word CHEAH which we had just now as a noun meaning motor-car or sewing- machine (and a host of other things, such as a propeller, a winnowing-fan, a lathe and every kind of wheeled vehicle) appears as a very common verb meaning to turn (on a lathe), to sew (on a machine), to drive or carry (on any vehicle), to winnow, to push a barrow, to mow a lawn, and by a delightful logical leap, as an abbreviation for CHEAH-DRAAIPAAU89 "to tell fibs". In this respect, the growing flexibility of English is approaching Chinese. One is tempted to echo the late Gustav Haloun, who said that in
87 王雲五 88
89車大
112
K. M. A. BARNETT
Appendix I applies this method of analysis to phrases with the word JHAT. This includes the uses with measure-words and classifiers, but it far from exhausts the uses of this little word, the first in the Chinese dictionary. I am told that in WRONQ WRANN-NGRR (WANG Yun-wu)87's great dictionary, still unpublished, there were more than a million entries under this word.
And before we leave the subject of nouns may I draw your attention to the diagram at Fig. 1, which tries to show graphically the various states of a thing-word as identified in Chinese (outer ring) and English (inner ring).
And to prepare us for the next topic: verbs, or become-words, I have attempted a much more ambitious presentation at Fig. 2 showing by means of two wheels, that on the left for the aspects from inception clockwise to completion, and from thought in the centre to realization; that on the right for tense, mood and degree of certainty, the movement in time (outermost ring) being from past on the left clockwise to future on the right; certainty (inner- most ring) in the reverse direction; and mood outwards from the wish in the centre, through command to statement or report: or as we might say from gerund through imperative to indicative.
Reducing four dimensions to two was not easy, and it doesn't quite come off. I shall be delighted if anyone will improve on it.
The verb is the essence of living Chinese. I call it the become-word, because a large class of what we would call adjec- tives behave syntactically just as though they were verbs; as they do in Japanese, and in the Semitic languages. There is also very free movement of nouns into this class, and the word CHEAH which we had just now as a noun meaning motor-car or sewing- machine (and a host of other things, such as a propeller, a winnowing-fan, a lathe and every kind of wheeled vehicle) appears as a very common verb meaning to turn (on a lathe), to sew (on a machine), to drive or carry (on any vehicle), to winnow, to push a barrow, to mow a lawn, and by a delightful logical leap, as an abbreviation for CHEAH-DRAAIPAAU89 "to tell fibs". In this respect, the growing flexibility of English is approaching Chinese. One is tempted to echo the late Gustav Haloun, who said that in
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87 王雲五 88
89車大
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