Can you help to translate ancient Chinese examples?

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   Aya Katzposted 14 years ago

   Fellow hubber June Sun is posting a series of reviews of scholarly articles about the development of the modern Mandarin copula shi from ancient uses. Those of you who have had a classical Chinese education are encouraged to look in on June's hubs and to help to provide an English translation for ancient Chinese sentences. We would be most grateful if you could help us to determine whether shi is being used as:
   
      * a "to be" type verb or particle
      * a third person pronoun -- kind of like he/she/it/that
      * an adverb/adjective true/truly correct/correctly
      * an affirmative particle "yes"
      * other
   
   Please state your training in Classical Chinese and your reasons for the assessment of the usage.

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      Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I have never had problems with translating any text from any language since I registered at sharedtalk.com. People there will gladly help you translate and understand their language.

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   Aya Katzposted 14 years ago

   Ancient people? ;->

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      The Ropeposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      :  :   :

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      Hauntyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Some people just don't change, ya know.
      But seriously, if you are after ancient ppl, I can't help you.

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3. 83

   Aya Katzposted 14 years ago

   Haunty, here's the problem. I know plenty of Chinese people. June Sun is a native speaker of Mandarin herself. We also do have general translations of the texts in question. So we know what they are generally said to mean. But... if we want to know, in this sentence is this character used to  means "be", "he/she/it/that" or "true/correct/truly", nobody can give us a straight answer. So, what I need to do is find someone who has had an education in classical or pre-Classical Chinese who might have near native speaker intuitions about ancient usage.

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4. 74

   Hauntyposted 14 years ago

   I hope it's easier than building a time machine.

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   Pani Midnyte Odinposted 14 years ago

   Can you post the sentence here? I know a few people who study Mandarin and could possibly tell you the answer. One is on Yahoo Messenger right now.

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      Aya Katzposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      June's hub includes the sentences:
      
      http://hubpages.com/hub/Shi-in-Old-Chinese

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   The Ropeposted 14 years ago

   Have you called the professors at Wesleyan University?  A specialist would be the best person to ask.  Suggest you contact Stephen C. Angle.  I think his email address can be found on the college website.

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      Aya Katzposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks. I'll look him up...

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   Kyle.Sposted 13 years ago

   Normally, shi means an affirmative particle "yes". However, shi is just the accent of a Chinese word. So "shi" can be corresponded to different words in Chinese. Although I am a Chinese, and I understand your question fully, it is hard for me to give a complete answer to you.
   Seems it is too late for me to answer your question. However, if you want to know the culture and the history of China. You are welcomed to follow my hubs. My hubs are always give a detail description about something in China. I want to help the world to know more about China, and I hope more people like China.

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