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A Study for Western Missionaries’ Chinese Grammar Books in 17th & 18th Centuries

  • The Journal of Chinese Cultural Studies
  • 2014, (25), pp.379-404
  • DOI : 10.18212/cccs.2014..25.015
  • Publisher : The Society For Chinese Cultural Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature > Chinese Literature > Chinese Culture
  • Published : August 30, 2014

KyungHwan Cho 1

1국민대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

It is often said that Mashiwentong is the first Chinese grammar book. But It is not true because before this book there were many Chinese grammar books written by Western missionaries.This article introduced about the first Chinese grammar Grammatica Sinica by Martino Martini and the second Chinese grammar book Arte de la Lengua Mandarina by Francisco Varo in 17th and 18th centuries. After comparing two books in various aspects, we found that the grammatical system of Arte de la Lengua Mandarina is much more complicated than that of Grammatica Sinica. However it doesn’t mean grammatical analysis of Grammatica Sinica is not go good, because analysis about Chinese aspect is almost same as modern Chinese grammar. Besides, Arte de la Lengua Mandarina has unique parts, such as religious examples, various particles, three modes of speaking Chinese, Courteous words in conversation, modes of interrogation, etc. Especially on the today’s viewpoint Varo too much emphasized Courteous words and politeness because this topic is not grammatical problem and it should not involve grammar book. Even though these books have some mistakes and were deeply influenced by Latin-Greek Grammar, but these books have an important significance in that they blaze way for other western missionaries to study Chinese.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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