The semantic and syntactic differences between 至于 and 至於 in Warring States period texts
战国文献里出现的‘至于’、‘至於’的语意上、语法上的差异
Jung-Im Chang 张廷任
Abstract 摘要
This paper supports and extends the results of previous studies, such as Pulleyblank (1986) and Chang (2012), that argue that the choice of 于 or 於 in Classical Chinese is not random, but rather is conditioned by the features of the preceding verb. Through a close examination of the co-occurrence of 于 and 於 with the high-frequency verb 至 in six Warring States period texts, it is shown that additional semantic and syntactic factors influence the choice between the two. Semantically speaking, while both 至于 and 至於 occur followed by a noun indicating a place, a time, or a person—all of which can be described as [+concrete] goals—it is only 至於 that occurs followed by a degree, result, or extent, which can be described as [-concrete] goals. The [-concrete] goals that appear as objects of 至於 include a near demonstrative pronoun 此, a noun (including an abstract noun) or noun phrase, a verb phrase, and even a sentence. Syntactically speaking, only “至於+ Noun” appears in nominalized contexts in complex syntactic structures, such as before a nominalizer 者, before or after a relativizer 所, and as a head noun after a
possessive/attributive marker 之. These findings provide additional support for the claim that 于 and 於 represent distinct lexical items, with distinct semantic feature sets, in Classical Chinese.
Keywords 关键词
Zhiyu 至于 Zhiyu 至於 yu于 yu於 Warring States period texts 战国文献
Journal of Chinese Linguistics vol.45, no.1 (June 2017): 145-192
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