Some Observations On a Grammar of Late Archaic Chinese

Abstract

* j, ~3 )J and 'j VjI and Western scholars like Gabelentz, Julien, Maspero, Karlgren, Simon, Mullie, Haenisch, Kennedy and Graham have filled in some of the gaps in this branch of sinology. Grammatical studies of Classical Chinese may be divided into the following main groups: i) more or less comprehensive studies of collections of function words 1); 2) translations and complete descriptions of particular works 2); 3) monographs treating one construction or function word 3); 4) studies of the grammatical peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of individual authors 4); 5) attempts at a more comprehensive description of Classical grammar 5). The earliest of these latter works suffer from the grammarian's insistence on fitting his material into an alien set of categories and