《中国言法》:英国近代传教士汉学的创建与创见

Elements of Chinese Grammar:Emergence and Contribution of Modern British Missionary Sinology

马士曼所作《中国言法》(1814)将西方建立在拉丁语语法基础上的汉语研究、英国本土的英语语法研究、新兴的历史比较语言学思想和中国传统汉语语言文字学思想融会贯通,在汉字研究中较早具备了部件意识。在语音研究上,《中国言法》较早将汉语与梵语比较,在36字母的基础上进行古音构拟,并初步划分出了汉藏语系的范围;在语法上,其建立了包括小词(虚词)在内的汉语词类体系。这些研究搭建起了汉语语言学体系诸多问题的基本框架,《中国言法》的出版也标志着英国近代传教士汉学的确立。

Elements of Chinese Grammar(1814),written by Joshua Mashman,integrates Chinese studies based on Latin grammar in the West,English grammar studies in the UK and emerging historical comparative linguistics and traditional Chinese philology.The book exhibits a rather early component consciousness in the study of Chinese characters.It compares Chinese with Sanskrit in phonetic research and constructs ancient sounds based on 36 initials.Moreover,it delineates the basic range of Sino-Tibetan language family and establishes a Chinese part-of-speech system,including particles in grammar.These studies set up a basic framework for many issues in the Chinese linguistic system.The publication of Elements of Chinese Grammar also marks the emergence of modern British missionary sinology.