Проблемы китайского и общего языкознания. К 90-летию С. Е. Яхонтова

 593  Analysis of “full” words in Classical Chinese based on the Book of Laozi   3.1. Nouns (N, NP) Nouns are words expressing denominations of objects (“object words”) in the broadest sense including things, people, persons, substances, natural phenomena, geographical localities, weights and measures, denomination of place and time as well as some abstract concepts. In common functions nouns are negated with the negation 非 f i . Common functions of nouns are all functions which can be referred to as nominal ones: subject, thematic subject, object, nominal predicate, designation of place or time, specification, common element in pivotal construction. Special functions are function of the attribute to another noun, the function of predica- tive verb and the function of adverbial modifier. The attributive function of the noun cannot be transformed into the function of predicative verb and vice versa. Syntactic functions of nouns attested in the text of Laozi : 1. n (noun in nominal function) 故道大，天大，地大，人亦大 “There- fore Dao is great, Heaven is great, Earth is great and Man is also great.” (XXV) 2. n in function of designation of time (noun in function of designation of time) 豫兮若冬涉川 “Hesitant they were, alas, as if they were crossing the river in winter.” (XV) 3. n in function of attribute (noun in function of attribute to another nominal element) 五色令人目盲 “All kinds of colours cause human eyes to become blind.” (XII) 4. vi (noun in function of objectless predicative verb) 侯王若能守之， 萬物將自賓 “If the rulers would be able to maintain it, all things would by themselves behave like guests.” (XXXII) 5. vi in inchoative aspect (noun in function of objectless predicative verb referring to the beginning of a process or state) 其未兆，如嬰兒之未 孩 “Those symptoms have still not become manifest, like a newly born baby which has not become an infant yet.“ (XX) 6. vt (noun in function of predicative verb with one object) 服文綵 “They are wearing embroidered and colourful [clothes].“ (LIII) 7. causative vt.om (noun in function of causative transitive verb with one ommited object) 雖小，天下莫能臣也 “One might have been unimportant, but in the world nobody could turn him into one’s own subject.“ (XXXII) 8. causative passive vt (noun in function of causative transitive verb whose object was transformed into the passive subject) 名可名，非常名 “If a word could have been made into a term, it is not an ordinary word.“ (I) 9. causative vtprep.om (noun in function of causative transitive verb whose omitted object is introduced by a preposition) 萬物作而不為 ( wèi ) 始 “All things were arising, but they did not give any initial impulse for that.” (II)