上古漢語“有”“無”非無指代詞芻議

Abstract

It is generally believed that there are indefinite pronouns in ancient Chinese, which means “someone, something”, or “none, nothing”, like Mò 莫 and Huò. Some scholars believe that yǒu 有 and wú 無, the originally existential verbs, also converted to indefinite pronouns in pre-Qin Dynasty. By describing the diachronic evolution of the related constructions of yǒu 有 and wú 無, this paper demonstrates that the verbs yǒu 有 and wú 無 cannot derive the usage of pronouns. Then, by reductive fallacy, assuming that yǒu 有 and wú 無 can be used as indefinite pronoun, it will face some problems, such as how to differentiate the word-classes between verbs and indefinite pronouns, the divergence of referent, and the contradiction with the definite reference. Finally, double negation constructions cannot prove that wú 無 and other negative existential verbs are indefinite pronouns. In a word, in ancient Chinese, yǒu 有 and wú 無 aren’t indefinite pronouns. They are positive/ negative existential verbs, indicating whether an action or event exists or not. When yǒu 有 and wú 無 are followed by VP, VP is referentialized, as the object of verbs yǒu 有 and wú 無.