Exclamation in Late Archaic Chinese

Exclamation in Late Archaic Chinese WANG Aiqing University of Liverpool, UK Abstract Exclamation is constituted of sentence exclamations and exclamatives. Sentence exclamations in Late Archaic Chinese (LAC) are expressives asserting denoted propositions, parallel to their counterparts in modern Mandarin. Sentence exclamations in LAC also indicate that the asserted propositions fail to meet speakers’ expectations, yet such a sense of surprise is not obligatory. Another property of sentence exclamations in LAC is their compatibility with focus structures whose value is reflected in a degree property. As for exclamatives, although they exist in modern Mandarin, they do not exist in LAC. There are exclamatory constructions involving degree adverbials he and heqi, which, according to traditional analyses (Yang & He, 1992, pp. 899-900; Chu, 1994, p. 303), are exclamatives. Nevertheless, I suggest that exclamatory constructions involving he and heqi in LAC fail to pass the exclamativity tests (Zanuttini & Portner 2000, 2003; Badan & Cheng, 2015), disparate from their modern counterparts, so they should not be treated as true exclamatives. Keywords: Late Archaic Chinese, sentence exclamations, exclamatives, exclamativity tests Povzetek Vzklik je sestavljen iz vzklične povedi in vzkličnika. Vzklične povedi v pozno-arhaični kitajščini (LAC) so izjave, ki potrdijo oz. ovržejo določeno predpostavko, in so primerljive s svojim sodobnim sopomenkam v sodobni kitajščini. Vzklične povedi v LAC pogosto nakazujejo, da potrjene predpostavke ne izpolnjujejo pričakovanj govorcev, vendar takšen občutek presenečenja ni obvezen. Še ena lastnost vzkličnih povedi v LAC je njihova združljivost s strukturami, ki izražajo fokus, katerih vrednost se odraža v lastnosti stopnje. Vzkličniki sicer obstajajo v sodobni kitajščini, vendar ne v LAC-u. Obstajajo sicer vzklične strukture, ki vključujejo stopenjska prislova he in heqi, ki jih po tradicionalnih analizah (Yang & He, 1992, str. 899-900; Chu, 1994, str. 303) uvrščamo med vzkličnike. V članku pokažem, da vzklične strukture, ki vključujejo he in heqi v LAC-u, v nasprotju z njihovimi sodobnimi sopomenkami ne prestanejo testov vzkličnosti (Zanuttini & Portner, 2000, 2003; Badan & Cheng, 2015), zato jih ne bi smeli obravnavati kot vzličnike. Ključne besede: pozno-arhaična kitajščina, vzklična poved, vzklik, testi vzkličnosti Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 13(2), 2023. ISSN: 2232-3317, http://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/ala/ DOI: 10.4312/ala.13.2.59-85 60 WANG Aiqing 1 Introduction Late Archaic Chinese (henceforth LAC) denotes Archaic Chinese during the Warring States period (475-221 BC). The written form of the Chinese language prior to the 20th century did not have punctuation, so readers parse Archaic Chinese texts based on contextual information, grammatical and modal particles, as well as symmetry and rhythm of parallel sentence structures; the judgement of exclamation in LAC is also the case (Chu, 1994, p. 302; Galambos, 2014). According to traditional views, exclamation in LAC can be formed by means of distinct strategies. First, exclamation can be realized via interjections preceding declarative sentences. In LAC, there is a range of interjections indicating excitement, sympathy, sorrow, approval, surprise, etc. For instance, yi , wuhu and ai are typical interjections in Archaic Chinese (1a/b/c), and the interpretation of emotions they express relies heavily on contextual information. Among these interjections, ai is still widely used in modern Mandarin (Wu, 1980, pp. 249-251; Xiang et al., 1988, pp. 122-123; Yang & He, 1992, pp. 901-904; Chu, 1994, pp. 302-308). …………… (1) a. yi tian zhu yu interj providence slash me ‘Alas! Providence is slashing me!’1 (Gongyangzhuan Aigong 14; 206 BC-9 AD) ………… (1) b. wuhu ai zai interj sad PAR ‘Alas! How sad!’ (Xunzi Wangba; 475 BC-221 BC) ………… (1) c. ai yu zhi interj I zhi know 3.Obj ‘Ah, I know it.’ (Zhuangzi Zhibeiyou; 350 BC-250 BC) 1 Except Examples (13-16) and (24) that are cited from literature, all examples in this paper are rendered into English by the author. Exclamation in Late Archaic Chinese 61 Second, in LAC it is prevalent to generate exclamation through exclamatory particles. Under most circumstances, exclamatory particles occupy sentence-final positions. The most commonly attested sentence-final exclamatory particle is zai , the fundamental function of which is to express strong emotions, similar to a in modern Mandarin (2). Alternatively, zai may appear in open and closed questions and still indicate exclamation (3a/b). Additionally, zai can be employed at the end of rhetorical questions; under this circumstance, zai is usually accompanied by an interrogative pronoun (4a) or a particle qi (4b). Although zai is allowed to be present in rhetorical questions, its function is mainly to express exclamative modality; the rhetoricalness is conveyed by interrogative pronouns or qi, as in (4b) (Liao, 1979, pp. 218-219; Wang, 1980, pp. 448-449; Pan, 1982, p. 168; Guo et al., 1999, pp. 354-355; Xu, 2002, p. 199). ……………… (2) a. wei zai dangerous PAR ‘Dangerous!’ (Guanzi Xiaowen; 475 BC-220 AD) (2) b. Guan Zhong zhi qi xiao zai Guan Zhong Gen tolerance small PAR ‘Guan Zhong’s tolerance is small!’ (Lunyu Baiyi; 480 BC-350 BC) (3) a. que zhi wei bu gong he zai decline 3.Obj COP not respectful why PAR ‘Why is it not respectful to decline it?’ (Mengzi Wanzhang; 340 BC-250 BC) (3) b. junzi duo hu zai? bu duo ye gentleman many PAR PAR? Not many PAR ‘Are there many gentlemen? Not many.’ (Lunyu Zihan; 480 BC-350 BC) 62 WANG Aiqing …… (4) a. bi qie wu hu dai zai 3.Subj then what on rely PAR ‘Then what does he rely on?’ (Zhuangzi Xiaoyaoyou; 350 BC-250 BC) ……… (4) b. qi neng du le zai how can alone be.happy PAR ‘How can (he) be happy alone?’ (Mengzi Lianghuiwang; 340 BC-250 BC) A counterpart of zai in LAC is fu , yet the exclamative emotion expressed by fu tends to be more low-spirited (5). It is prevalent for zai to follow another particle, e.g. hu (in a rigid order hu zai, rather than *zai hu), in a sentence-final position (6). In the situation of multiple particles, each particle maintains its individual function, and the modality of the entire sentence is normally determined by the last particle (Liao, 1979, pp. 219-220; Pan, 1982, p. 168; Xiang et al., 1988, p. 122; Guo et al., 1999, pp. 355-356; Yang, 2003, pp. 409-410; Wang, 2005, p. 298). (5) a. shi zhe ru si fu pass.on DET be.like this PAR ‘What passes on is like this!’ (Lunyu Zihan; 480 BC-350 BC) …… (5) b. ai fu jing fu sadness PAR respect PAR ‘Sadness! Respect!’ (Xunzi Lilun; 475 BC-221 BC) …………………… (6) shan hu zai good PAR PAR ‘Good!’ (Huangdineijing Wuyinwuwei; 475 BC-9AD) Exclamation in Late Archaic Chinese 63 It is worth mentioning that although the vast majority of exclamatory particles in Archaic Chinese occur in a sentence-final position, a few particles such as qi expressing m (...truncated)