Vernacularization in Medieval Chinese: A quantitative study on classifiers, demonstratives, and copulae in the Chinese Buddhist Canon.
While studies on diachronic Chinese syntax have identified a number of linguistic changes in Medieval Chinese, they have mostly been underpinned by qualitative analyses. In the most large-scale quantitative analysis to-date, this article investigates changes in the use of classifiers, demonstratives...
| Published in: | Digital Scholarship in the Humanities Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 64 - 82 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Apr2019
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=135432212&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 135432212 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 2055768X JEO9 jtl: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities issn: 2055768X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2019 vid: 34 iid: 1 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 135432212 10.1093/llc/fqy012 ppf: 64 ppct: 18 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 908KB tig: atl: Vernacularization in Medieval Chinese: A quantitative study on classifiers, demonstratives, and copulae in the Chinese Buddhist Canon. aug: au: Wong, Tak-sum Lee, John S Y affil: Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong su: Canon (Literature) Classifiers (Linguistics) Demonstratives (Grammar) Chinese language Native language instruction Chinese Buddhist literature Quantitative research Syntax (Grammar) sug: subj: Canon (Literature) Classifiers (Linguistics) Demonstratives (Grammar) Chinese language Native language instruction Chinese Buddhist literature Quantitative research Syntax (Grammar) ab: While studies on diachronic Chinese syntax have identified a number of linguistic changes in Medieval Chinese, they have mostly been underpinned by qualitative analyses. In the most large-scale quantitative analysis to-date, this article investigates changes in the use of classifiers, demonstratives, and copulae. Our analysis, based on the Chinese Buddhist Canon, examines over 40 million characters in texts spanning a millennium. Results suggest that from the late Eastern Han period (circa 150 CE) onwards, the vernacular style became increasingly widespread, at the expense of the literary style, as reflected by changes in the use of classifiers and demonstratives, and in the construction of nominal sentences. However, the vernacular style became less frequently used in the Northern Sung period (960–1127 CE). This reversal may shed light on the work of the Stylists, editors appointed by the Sung court to polish Buddhist texts with more literary elements. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: © 2019 EADH: The European Association for Digital Humanities. item: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities holder: Oxford University Press / USA dt: @attributes: year: 2019 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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