160169 PS Theory of Grammar and Structure of a Non-Indo-European Language (2026S)

Contents

This course is designed to challenge recurrent myths and address questions about the Chinese language faced by students familiar with Indo-European languages: Does Chinese have grammar? How can a language without overt morphology avoid ambiguity? We begin by emphasising what sets Classical Chinese apart: Positional syntax instead of inflection as a grammatical marker. Working with a language that mostly, though not always, reflects a highly formalised written style rather than a spoken vernacular, students learn to parse sentences by identifying what is impossible and what is unlikely according to structural and statistical patterns.
Central to this process is the role of parallelism, formal patterning, and brevity. During class we will raise questions like: What do we do when no function word is present, and how much logical structure can a translator legitimately supply? On the assumption that all languages (must) fulfil comparable communicational functions, the course will put Classical Chinese and Indo-European languages in dialogue. In doing so, it will show how the former functions through, and not merely in spite of, a radical economy of overt and explicit means.

Aims and methods

• To master the most frequently used function words as grammatical markers akin to Indo-European categories such as case, mood, and aspect.
• To use parallelism and formal patterning as syntactic tools for resolving ambiguity in the absence of overt morphology.
• To develop a position-first, elimination-based method for parsing Classical Chinese sentences.

Outcomes

• Students will be able to identify the general sense of Classical Chinese texts by applying several diagnostic criteria.
• Students will understand when to preserve paratactic brevity and when to compensate for it.
• Students will gain a transferable analytical framework for comparing grammatical systems across language families.

This course will be of particular interest to students trained in linguistics and to those familiar with Indo-European languages more broadly, but students with *any* background are welcome. Students will engage with foundational texts from the 6th to 2nd centuries BCE. There will be the opportunity to choose between a more linguistically oriented pathway or a more traditional Sinological one, while sharing a common analytical framework throughout the course.

Topics

• Definition, scope, and dating of Classical Chinese
• Classical Chinese as a formal written register (text, style, convention)
• Positional syntax and the absence of overt morphology
• Word class flexibility
• Sentence type (verbal and nominal)
• Function words as grammatical markers
• Parallelism and formal patterning
• Brevity, ellipsis, and parataxis
• Ambiguity and diagnostic criteria
• Context, probability, and statistical likelihood in interpretation

Pre-requirements

No prior knowledge of classical Chinese is required for Module 1.