从语言类型学的角度看先秦汉语的形容词

Adjectives in Pre-Qin Chinese from the Perspective of Linguistic Typology

先秦汉语存在独立的形容词类,形容词不是动词的次类,形容词的核心句法功能是作定语。先秦汉语中,是否受程度副词修饰不能作为判断形容词的标准。不论是从汉语本身还是从语言类型学的角度,表示属性义不是形容词的专属语义特征,动词也可以表示属性义。“非定形容词”在句法上不能直接修饰名词作定语,能够作谓语,有的带宾语且并非词类活用,其词义也没有发生引申,不论是从汉语本身还是从类型学的角度,都应该归入动词。

Pre-Qin Chinese had an independent class of adjectives,which were not subclasses of verbs,and the core syntactic function of adjectives was the determiner.In pre-Qin Chinese,the adverb modifi er cannot be used as a criterion for judging adjectives.Whether from the perspective of Chinese itself or linguistic typologies,the meaning of attributes is not the exclusive semantic feature of adjectives,and verbs can also express attribute meanings.“Indefinite adjectives”can’t directly modify nouns as determiners syntactically.They can be used as predicates.Some of them have objects and are not infl ected as word classes,and their meanings have not been derived.Whether from the perspective of Chinese itself or typology,they should be classifi ed as verbs.