The Classical Chinese personal pronouns run as follows:
(1) (a) 余 yu2 [MC jiwo, OC *rag]
(b) 吾 wu2 [MC nguo, OC *ngag]
我 wo3 [MC nga:, OC *ngarx]
(2) 汝 ru3 [MC nzjwo, OC *njagx]
爾 er3 [MC nzje, OC njidx]
(3) 其 qi2 [MC gi, OC *gjeg]
之 zhi1 [MC tsi, OC *tjeg]
焉 yan1 [MC jan, OC *gwjan]
The first person was divided into two groups, (a) and (b): the former had an initial *r, and the latter had an initial *ng. There was no apparent distinction made between these two groups in Classical Chinese. There was, however, one between 吾 and 我 : 吾 was used primarily as a subject and possessive, and 我 as an object. When 我 was used as a subject, it was in a contrastive sense: "(not you, but) I." The second person pronouns show even less of a distinction between cases.
In contrast, the third person pronouns were used in relatively specific functions: 其 was used only as a possessive, 之 only as an object, and 焉 functioned as a dative, meaning "to him/her/it." 焉 is thought to be a fusion of the preposition 於 [yu2] and some pronoun form beginning with *n; this theory is somewhat problematic since there is no known third-person pronoun form beginning with n-, but some resolution is found in the development in later times of the demonstrative 那 [na4, MC na]. Strictly speaking there was no third person subject pronoun; when one was needed, typically for contrast, the demonstrative 彼 [bi3] was used. (On occasion, owing to ellipsis, 其 may appear to be used as a subject.)
There was no explicit distinction between singular and plural in Classical Chinese pronouns; when it was not apparent from the context, a typical solution was to add a term for "group" to the pronoun.
Other Classical Chinese pronouns are as follows:
(1) 此 ci3 [MC tshje:, OC *tshjarx]
彼 bi3 [MC pje:, OC *pjarx]
是 shi4 [MC zje:, OC *djigx]
(2) 何 he2 [MC Ga, OC *gar]
誰 shui2 [MC zwi, OC *djed]
奚 xi1 [MC Giei, OC *gig]
胡 hu2 [MC Guo, OC *gag]
安 an1 [MC ?an, OC *?an]
曷 he2 [MC Gap, OC *gap]
焉 yan1 [MC ?jan, OC *?jan]
惡 wu1 [MC ?uo, OC *jag]
幾 ji3 [MC kjei:, OC *kjedx]
(3) 孰 shu2 [MC zjuk, OC *djekw]
末 mo4 [MC mak, OC *mak]
個 ge4 [MC kak, OC *kak]
或 huo4 [MC Gwek, OC *gwek]
The demonstratives 此 and 彼 denote "this" and "that," respectively. 是 also denotes "this," but it is generally used to refer to something in the current linguistic context, whereas 此 generally refers to something actually (physically) present.
是 today means "to be," an apparent far cry from its Classical definition. Some scholars believe that its meaning shifted as a result of constructions such as 吾是師也 [wu2 shi4 shi1 ye3], "I am this teacher (of which we are speaking)." In Classical Chinese, juxtaposition was the usual way to denote the copula, along with the particle 也, and the theory goes that the 是 gradually became dissociated from its noun and became a copula, as a result of its "infix" position between subject and class.
The two most common interrogative pronouns were 何, "what," and 誰, "who"; they are still used today. In addition, 何 could function as "which," as in 何木 [he2 mu4], "which tree." Other pronouns in use at this time were 奚 "what, where," 胡 "what, how," 安 "what, where," 曷 "what is not," 焉 "how, where, what," 惡 "how," and 幾 "how many, how much."
Distributive pronouns are those indicating specific choices out of a given array of objects. Classical Chinese distributive pronouns included 孰 "which one," 末 "no one," 個 "each one, every one," and 或 "some one." 孰 and 個 could refer to either human beings or objects; 末 and 或 were more likely to refer solely to human beings. Each of these pronouns occurred immediately before the verb.
The following are the most common Classical Chinese prepositions:
(1) 於 yu2 [MC ?jwo, OC *?jag]
于 yu2 [MC ju, OC *gwjag]
乎 hu1 [MC Guo, OC *gwag]
(2) 自 zi4 [MC dzi-, OC dzidh]
由 you2 [MC jieu, OC regw]
(3) 為 wei4 [MC jwe-, OC gwjarh]
(4) 與 yu3 [MC jiwo:, OC *ragx]
(5) 以 yi3 [MC jii:, OC *regx]
於, 于, and 乎 are all clearly related and probably variants of a single morpheme. Typically, 於 is used before personal names and pronouns, 于 before place words; 乎 is used only after a verb. The characters denote a wide variety of meanings, as "to," "toward," "than," "by," and "from."
自 and 由 are both ablative prepositions meaning roughly "from"; 自 is typically postverbal.
為 means "for (the sake of)"; it can almost mean "in order to" or "because." 與 means "together with" or "accompanying"; consequently, it also was used as the conjunction "and." The character 及 [ji2] was also used to mean "and." Finally, 以 primarily means "with the use of," but in addition, it also comprises the meanings of purpose, conjunction, and other subsidiary functions.
Classical Chinese had a large number of negations:
(1) 不 bu4 [MC pjeu, OC *pjeg]
弗 fu2 [MC pjuet, OC *pjet]
未 wei4 [MC mjuei-, OC *mjedh]
(2) 非 fei1 [MC pjuei, OC *pjed]
(3) 無 wu2 [MC mju, OC *mjag]
勿 wu4 [MC mjuet, OC *mjet]
The first of these, 不, is an interesting case. It is the predominant negation in the modern language. Etymologically, however, it is not related to the Classical negative: the modern pronunciation bu4 should go back to MC *puet, which is not actually recorded in any of the dictionaries. The actual MC pronunciation, pjeu, should have gone to (pinyin) *fou1 or *fu1, which is not represented by any modern negation. But because 不 was the most common negation in the Classical language, the graph was borrowed to express the corresponding negation in the modern language.
弗 is thought to be a fusion of the preceding negation 不 and the third person pronoun 之; this theory is supported by the use in Classical texts of this character without a corresponding object associated with the verb.
未 is a simple negation, like 不. They are to be distinguished as follows: when referring to an action in the perfective sense, 不 indicates that the action was intentionally not carried out, whereas 未 indicates only that the action was not carried out, irrespective of the subject's intentions. For this reason, 未 is often translated as "not yet."
非 was the negative copula (the positive form was expressed simply by juxtaposition): 非木 [fei1 mu4] "that is not a tree."
無 was really two separate but related negations. The first was the opposite of the existential verb 有 [you3] "there is": 無木 [wu2 mu4] "there is no tree." The second was used to form negative commands: 無來 [wu2 lai2] "do not come."
As with 弗, 勿 is thought to be a fusion of the preceding negation 無 (in its imperative sense) and 之: 勿食 [wu4 shi2] "do not eat it."
The following were commonly used Classical Chinese particles and auxiliaries:
(1) 也 ye3 [MC jia:, OC *riagx]
矣 yi3 [MC ji:, OC *gwjegx]
與 yu2 [MC jiwo, OC *rag]
(2) 可 ke3 [MC kha:, OC *kharx]
能 neng2 [MC neng, OC *neng]
欲 yu4 [MC jiwok, OC *grjuk]
必 bi4 [MC pjiet, OC *pjit]
宜 yi2 [MC ngje, OC *ngjar]
(3) 其 qi2 [MC gi, OC *gjeg]
也 and 矣 both were final particles indicating the factuality of the preceding assertion, but far from being equivalent or synonyms, they were complementary, in a way: 也 indicates that the assertion is flatly true, and has always been so, whereas 矣 indicates that it was formerly false, and is now or will be true, only as the result of some change of state. 與 (also written 歟) is an interrogative particle with much the same function, and is believed to be a fusion of 也 and the interrogative particle 乎 [MC guo, OC *gwag].
可 expresses potential. When used by itself, without 以, it is interpreted in a passive sense: 可食 [ke3 shi2] "can be eaten." When used with 以, it takes on the active sense: 可以食 [ke3 yi3 shi2] "can eat." 能 also expresses potential; context indicates whether it is to be read in a passive or active sense.
欲 indicates desire, volition: 欲食 [yu4 shi2] "want to eat."
必 and 宜 both indicate obligation; 必 is stronger and indicates that something must be done, whereas 宜 is weaker and indicates only that something ought to be done. In addition, 必 can also be used to indicate that something is certain, or inevitable.
其 is considered a kind of semi-auxiliary, because while it is syntactically bound (is not considered in isolation, in other words), it expresses a number of modal notions, just like the other auxiliaries. Among its meanings are possibility and duty.
Finally, some other common auxiliaries are 足 [zu2] "to be worthwhile to," 肯 [ken3] "to be willing to," 忍 [ren3] "to bear to," 敢 [gan3] "to dare to," and 請 [qing3] "to be permitted to."
Most languages have some notion of transitive versus intransitive verbs, but it is an extraordinarily slippery notion in classical Chinese. One often finds intuitively intransitive verbs such as 死 [si3] "to die" being used with an object! Nevertheless, one can make some generalizations about the instances in which these anomalies occur.
When a normally intransitive verb takes an object, it is usually interpreted as either causative (死人 [si3 ren2] "cause people to die") or putative (自巧 [zi4 qiao3] "consider oneself clever").
When a normally transitive verb occurs without an object, it is usually interpreted with an understood object.
Copyright (c) 1997 Brian Tung 童業欽