A study of the issues of Chinese grammar reform (1938-1943)

Abstract

It is stated that the study of Chinese grammar began after Ma Jianzhong

published his Ma’s General Grammar which is considered as the very first book of

Chinese grammar in 1898. It was the first time that a complete Chinese grammatical

system was introduced and its influence was tremendous. Scholars in China started

to pay attention to the study of Chinese grammar, and a number of Chinese grammar

books were published at the beginning of 20th Century.

These Chinese grammar books introduced grammatical systems similar to that in

Ma’s General Grammar. Within these books, New Chinese Grammar by Li Jinxi

was the most influential one.

As scholars learnt more about grammar, they found the grammatical systems

introduced by these two books and also other Chinese grammar books not perfect.

They pointed out that these systems were established base on imitation of Western

grammatical system and neither of them could fit Chinese language perfectly.

Therefore scholars asked for a reform of Chinese grammar in 1930s.

A group of scholars in Shanghai, represented by Chen Wangdao, started to

discuss how to reform Chinese grammar in October 1938. Chen started the

discussion by pointing out that the criterion of distinguishing between a verb and an

adjective in Chinese should be different from that in Western languages as an

adjective could be used as a predicate in Chinese sentences, while most Chinese

grammar books at that time were using that criteria. This reflected defects of these

Chinese grammatical systems. Fu Donghua and Jin Zhaozi then announced their

own designs of Chinese grammatical system and aroused the attention of other

scholars like Fang Guangdao and Zhang Shilu. They joined and contributed a lot in

the discussion.

The whole discussion had lasted for 4.5 years, and a number of grammatical

issues were covered, for example, the object of the study of Chinese grammar, the

morphology, the syntax and the establishment of Chinese grammatical system, the

criticism of Chinese grammatical systems at that time, and also the relationship

between the study of Chinese grammar and other branches of linguistics such as

exegesis, etymology and lexicology.

The thesis sets to examine different aspects of this Chinese grammar reform.

Firstly the thesis discusses how and why this Chinese grammar reform took place,

then introduces scholars who took part in it. Next the thesis looks into what scholars

discussed, and looks into their proposals in reforming Chinese grammar together with

other grammatical issues raised in their discussion. For example, is it practical to

combine morphology and syntax of Chinese? Is it appropriate to design one

grammatical system for both ancient and modern Chinese languages? How to

categorize Chinese words? What should be considered in establishing a better

Chinese grammatical system? Scholars shared different opinions on these issues.

The thesis comments and criticizes these opinions.

The thesis also examines the contribution and the influence of this Chinese

reform in order to assess its importance in the history of the study of Chinese

grammar.