试论连词“而”字的语意与语法功能

On the semantic and syntactic functions of the conjunction

1.多年来在国外从事古代汉语的教学工怍,使我体认到严密解析其语法的重要性。由于学生的母语不是汉语,而且学习的目标主要是阅读,这就要求我们多作教材的分析,特别要把句式及语法词(即使是最常见的)解释清楚。可惜我们这方面的知识仍嫌不足,因此有许多古文选本在注释虚词时,就经常有一些模棱两可的说法。比如说,如何解释复句的形成,以及如何界定虚词"而"字的功能与含义,就是我在教学中经常碰到的问题。

This paper deals with an important but highly controversial issue in Classical Chinese grammar, namely, the nature of the function word er and its role in the formation of compound sentences. It consists of six parts: 1) Special need for better grammatical explanation when teaching Classical Chinese to foreign students; 2) Basic principles for defining grammatical terms; 3) Previous studies on this subject and their inadequacy; 4) A new integrated definition for the grammatical function of er; 5) Arguments showing how the new definition can explain most accurately the function of er in all it occurrences; and 6) The semantic relationaship between the clauses connected by er and a comparison between er and another conjunction ze. The paper concludes that, contrary to the claims of all previous studies, er is a conjunction for clauses only in a syntactic sense, and its semantic function is the subordination of the clause that precedes it to the clause that follows it.