Classical Chinese/Structure

Classical Chinese is a very succinct and potent language. Its efficiency at conveying information rests on 2 pillars of the language. The fact that most words, whether verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, or adverb, are composed of a single character, and its use of implicit, or already stated, knowledge. Also, there is no punctuation in Classical Chinese, though there is a similar system that will be discussed.

Below, the basics of word order, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs of Classical Chinese will be discussed.

Word Order

Classical Chinese's basic structure is similar to English. It is on a basic level Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), like English.

The king rules the state.

In this English sentence, the subject is king, the verb is rules, and the object is state.

In Classical Chinese,

王wáng治zhì國guó

the king rules the state (literally, "king rule state")

Here, the subject is wáng 王 "king", the verb zhì 治 "rule", and the object is guó 國 "state".

Though English and Classical Chinese share the same basic word order, notice that Classical Chinese does not use anything equivalent to the, a, or an, like Latin.

Modifiers, such as adjectives and adverbs, precede the word they modify.

良liáng藥yào苦kǔ口kǒu

good medicine tastes bitter (lit. "good medicine bitter taste")

We can see here the adjective liáng 良 "good" coming before the noun yào 藥 "medicine", which it describes; likewise the adverb kǔ 苦 "bitter" precedes the verb kǒu 口 "taste".

Nouns

Nouns in Classical Chinese are usually a single character. Most multi-character nouns you will encounter are usually foreign loanwords or names. This helps contribute to Classical Chinese's brevity. In addition to this, plural nouns are not usually marked. Nouns can be understood to be plural from context or from attached adjectives.

鳥niǎo飛fēi

lit. "bird fly"

This can be interpreted as "the bird flies" or "the birds fly".

楚chǔ有yǒu多duō鳥niǎo

lit. "Chu have many bird"

The noun niǎo 鳥 "bird", is understood to be plural in this sentence because of the adjective duō 多 "many; multiple". So: "Chu has many birds".

國guó只zhǐ有yǒu一yī王wáng

lit. "country only have one king"

The noun wáng 王 "king", is understood to be singular in this sentence because the numeral yī 一 "one", precedes it. So: "A country only has one king."

Verbs

Like nouns, the vast majority of verbs in Classical Chinese are single characters. Unlike English, which still retains various tenses for verbs, Classical Chinese has no tenses, conjugations, or agreement for verbs; an unmarked verb can refer to a past action, a current one, a habitual one, or sometimes one that will occur in the future.

兵bīng食shí

soldier eat

This is could be any tense because there is nothing suggesting that this occurred or will occur; there is no way of being certain of the time frame of this action.

Like nouns, we can sometimes infer the tense of a verb with the information in the sentence.

茲zī父fù休xiū

now father rests

The father here is understood to be presently resting because of the word zī 茲 "now" indicating that the action is taking place currently.

昨zuó公gōng習xí論lún

yesterday the duke studied the Analects

We know the duke to have been studying in the past because of the given information; zuó 昨 "yesterday" sets the information that is part of its clause and after it in the past, specifically the previous day.

Adjectives

Adjectives in Classical Chinese are also similar to the way they are used in English. The adjective usually goes before what is being described.

樂老走市 (le4) (lao3) (zou3) (shi4)

The happy old man walks to the market.

The subject is 老, old man, and what describes him, 樂, happy, comes before.

悲王不言 (bei1) (wang2) (bu4) (yan2)

The grief-stricken king does not speak.

Adverbs

Adverbs go before the verb they modify, whereas in English, adverbs sometimes go before or after the verb.

兵響號 (bing1) (xiang3) (hao4)

The soldier screams loudly

號, to roar, is the verb which 響, loudly, modifies.

竹高長 (zhu2) (gao1) (zhang3)

The bamboo grew tall.

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