The Development of Chinese Grammars and the Classification of the Parts of Speech

Abstract

Studies of Chinese grammar, which began during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), marked a transformation in the analysis of Chinese languages. The development of grammar studies was initially tied to the activities of Western missionaries, who wrote numerous teaching grammars and language textbooks.Teaching Chinese languages to Westerners required adapting categories and methodologies that had been devised for Western languages. Although the Western model was predominant in the grammars and primers written by missionaries, diplomats, and academics, which used Western terminologies to describe the features of the different varieties of Chinese, these works also integrated aspects of the Chinese linguistic tradition by borrowing nativ­e categories and methodologies. In addition, new categories were created to account for the specific features of the languages being described.This paper traces this process of borrowing, adaptation, and innovation as it applies to the classification of parts of speech, which is an archetypical example of how the writing of Chinese grammars developed.