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On the Origin of the Momentum Word “Du”

  • The Journal of Chinese Cultural Studies
  • 2020, (47), pp.219-248
  • DOI : 10.18212/cccs.2020..47.009
  • Publisher : The Society For Chinese Cultural Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature > Chinese Literature > Chinese Culture
  • Received : January 6, 2020
  • Accepted : February 13, 2020
  • Published : February 28, 2020

Liu Jie 1

1서울여자대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

If the research on the diachronic and synchronic development and evolution of individual momentum words can be carried out in a comprehensive, accurate and in-depth way, the overall development and evolution of momentum word system can get more comprehensive and accurate investigation and description. However, the current research in this field in academia still needs further study, which is a long way to go. Take the verb Quantifier “Du” for example. Although the generation and development of the momentum word “Du” has been discussed in some dating quantifier research works and special book quantifier research works, there has not been a specific research on the momentum word “Du”. For example, when it comes to the origin of the momentum word “Du”, it is generally accepted in academia as “Verb Theory”. According to the view of “Verb Theory”, the momentum word “Du” comes from the verb usage which shows the meaning of “crossing”, but there is only one use case. After further investigation and analysis, we believe that the “Du” in this example still has a clear and real meaning of “crossing” as a verb, and it is followed by noun object, so it is used as the predicate in the sentence, which does not mean the measurement of action. In addition, the only example recognized by the academic community does not conform to the gradualness of grammaticalization and the cohesion of the historical process of language. After a comprehensive and detailed study of the literature, we find that the nominal meaning of “Du” in the table of “celestial motion unit” is frequently used in the structure of “go / move + number + Du” in the history of language, which provides a grammatical basis for the process of “Du” momentum word virtualization, and the frequent occurrence of this structure, together with “Du” in some language environments, The semantic fuzziness and inseparability make the nominal meaning of the concrete operation unit of the surface objects gradually become virtual. The astronomical calendar in ancient China comes from the observation and measurement of the movement of celestial bodies, the heavenly stems and earthly branches, the five elements of yin and Yang, which are endless, and the human body’s rule is natural, especially in some medical materials classics with the core of nature according to the nature’s rule, the “Du” of the displacement process unit of celestial bodies is metaphorized to the movement of human meridians and Qi and blood as well as the healing process of medical treatment, so as to express the “Du” concretely The nominal meaning of celestial movement unit is gradually virtualized, and it is gradually used to measure the semantic category of verbs related to time characteristics. At the latest, we can find that all kinds of use cases of the momentum word “Du” is in the medical classics of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the period of Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties, the use of the momentum word “Du” was more extensive, and the combination of the verb meaning and the grammatical functions it undertook was also greatly enriched and improved. In Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, the use frequency of momentum word “Du” increased greatly. In Song Dynasty, the development of momentum word “Du” showed a trend of polarization. In the highly spoken literature, the use of momentum word “Du” declined sharply, but in the “all Song Ci” with a strong color of written philology, the use case of momentum word “Du” was the highest. In the period of yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, “Du” continued the development trend of Song Dynasty, rarely seen in the spoken literature However, it is still used in the written Chinese offering with strong literary color, and this state continues to the present in modern Chinese.

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