Object Preposing in Classical and Pre-Medieval Chinese

Abstract

In this paper, one of the three instances of object preposing in Classical Chinese, the structure [NP₁ NP₂ shi / zhi V], is discussed in detail. According to their distributional differences, two structures—A [NP₁ NP₂ shi V] and B [NP₁ NP₂ zhi V]—are distinguished, and it is shown that both constructions, although sometimes identical in the surface structure, are subject to different syntactic and semantic constraints. This analysis challenges the hypothesis proposed by Peyraube (Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientales 26(1):3–20, 1997) that structure A [NP₁ NP₂ shi V] was gradually replaced by structure B [NP₁ NP₂ zhi V] during the Warring States period. In accordance with the syntactic constraints, different analyses are proposed for structures A and B in the course of the paper. Structure A, [NP_S NP_O shi V], is analyzed as a copula construction, a focalization (cleft) construction with the object not in preverbal position but to the right of the copula. Structure B, which is more heterogeneous than structure A, will be subdivided into different structures, only two of which will be retained as cases of a focalized and preposed object. The analysis reveals that object preposing in Classical Chinese is evidently a case of marked word order and cannot be assumed to be a vestige of an earlier SOV word order in Chinese.