“但”字小议

A Discussion of the Chinese Character “Dan (But)”

对《古代汉语虚词词典》、《敦煌变文字义词典》有关说法表示怀疑,初步勾画了“但”从动词到副词再到连词最后变成助词的演变脉络。

This paper doubted the truth of what is said about the Chinese character dan （ meaning but ） in works like A Dictionary of Ancient Chinese Empty Words and A Dictionary of the Meaning of Characters in Adapted Dunhuang Buddhist Scriptures, rudimentarily disclosing the evolution process of dan from a verb to an adverb, then to a conjunction and last to an auxiliary.