先秦汉语代词“然”和连词“然”及其关系研究

The Pre-Chinese Character Ran as a Pronoun and a Conjunection and Their Relationship

殷商甲骨文时期没有"然"字出现。西周金文时期,"然"的本义为"燃烧",后来通过假借和虚化的方法新增了代词和连词的用法。这两种用法在春秋战国时期不断完善和结合,并且在合用代词"然"的情况中,经过语言的演变,"然"的实词义逐渐消退、虚化,让原本独立的两个词凝固成了一个单一的词汇。

There didn't exist such a character as Ran in the oracle bones of Shang Dynasty.Then in the Western Zhou Jin era,it appeared as a verb meaning to burn,while it evolved as a pronoun and conjunection through guise of false later.And during the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period,its usage as a content word gradually lessened as its functional employment strengthened.Thus this is how ran,originally as two independently used words came into being as a uniquely used one.