The Negative wei 未 in Han Period Chinese
汉代否定词〈未〉的语法
Barbara Meisterernst

Abstract 摘要
In this article, the syntactic and the semantic constraints on the employment of the negative wei 未 in Han period Chinese are at issue and it will be assumed that the interpretation of the negative wei 未 is closely connected to the situation type of the verb it modifies. The negative wei 未 in Classical and Han period Chinese belongs morphologically to the category of modal negatives. Regarding its semantics it has been assumed that the negative wei 未 appears in complimentary distribution with the aspecto-temporal adverb ji 既 (and with yi 已) and that the two adverbs display the same dichotomy as the aspectual suffix -le 了 and the negative meiyou 没有 in modern Mandarin. Based on this assumption the article demonstrates that in fact the negative wei 未 predominantly selects an event as its complement just as has been shown for the negative meiyou 没有 in Modern Mandarin, though it is less restricted in its employment than meiyou 没有 in Modern Mandarin. But wei 未 can also select an atelic complement, which then frequently changes its situation type from atelic to telic. Additionally, in combination with state verbs and with modal auxiliaries it can also attain a modal reading indicating the epistemic modal value of Inferred Certainty (assertion) and thus displaying its relation with the other modal negatives.

本文想讨论否定词〈未〉的句法和语义。作者假定，否定词〈未〉的分析跟动词的体有密切的关系。〈未〉在形态学里属于情态否定词 (modal m/w negatives)。从语义的角度来讲，否定词〈未〉是和副词〈既〉处于互补关系的，而且这两个副词是和现代汉语动态词尾〈-了〉和否定词〈没有〉可以比较的。根据本文的分析，否定词〈未〉通常要求终止形动词充当其补足语，在这一点上它和现代汉语否定词〈没有〉具有相似性，但它的用法不象〈没有〉那么广泛.另外否定词〈未〉也可以修饰非终止形动词.这样非终止形动词的动态经常变化成为终止的动态。除此之外，当它修饰静态动词和情态助动词时，否定词〈未〉就会具有情态否定词的功能，表示确切语气并揭示其同别的情态否定词的联系。

Keywords 关键词

Han period Chinese 汉代汉语 Negation 否定词 Situation type 动词的体 Telic verbs 终止型动词 Atelic verbs 非终止型动词 Modality 情态型

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