THE IDEA OF AN INDIGENOUS CHINESE GRAMMAR

Abstract

As Chinese linguistics encounters a more developed general linguistics, two opposite reactions emerged. One is to learn and imitate, while the other is to learn and innovate. As a visionary, William S-Y. Wang (1999) innovates. He rejected purely formal theories such as the Generative Grammar and envisioned an Indigenous Chinese Grammar (ICG) that takes culture into consideration. Echoing Wang’s seminal vision, we offer a possible ICG. We focus on the perplexing pair of cai2 才 (‘necessary’) and jiu4 就 (‘sufficient’). Both cai2 and jiu4 have divergent meanings that may be closely related, well related, remotely related, or even dubiously related. (See for example, you3qian2 cai2 jia4 ta1 ‘Marry him only if he is rich’, ta1 cai2 lai2 ‘He has just come’, wo3 cai2 you3qian2 ‘I am the one that has money’, wo3 cai2 bu2 pao4 ne0 ‘I contrary to anybody’s expectation am not afraid’.) Traditional formal theories seem unable to explain this wide range of divergence. But an Emergent Grammar (EG) can. Given a composition, EG enables its two elements to ‘interact’ into a largely unpredictable result. Free interactions in a specific context produce flexible results, making the derived meanings often unpredictable, as one would expect from a Complex system as opposed to a Complicated system. Realized as a complex-systematic approach to Chinese grammar, Wang’s brilliant insight of ICG could well inspire and help launch a fresh advancement path in Chinese linguistics.