Chinese Buddhist texts and historical syntax

Barchi, Francesco (2023): Chinese Buddhist texts and historical syntax: passive sentences in Sūtra translations. Dissertation, LMU München: Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on a specific issue concerning the grammatical features of Chinese Buddhist translated literature—namely, the so-called “passive” constructions and their relationship to the passive counterparts in Indic source texts. Additionally, the study seeks to provide insights into the syntactic and pragmatic-semantic status of passive constructions in Middle Chinese. The present study integrates philological and linguistic approaches, drawing on a substantial body of comparative data from Chinese and Indo-Aryan sources, and emphasizing the application of modern typological research to ancient Buddhist texts. The data for this study were collected from the Chinese translations of three Prajñāpāramitā scriptures—the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā, the Larger Prajñāpāramitā, and the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā—which were thoroughly compared with their Indic parallels. Contrary to claims made by some scholars, the analysis shows no direct correspondence between Chinese passives in Buddhist translations and passive constructions in the Indic originals. Furthermore, the use of passives in the Chinese translations does not appear to be influenced by the morphosyntactic principles typically underlying the Indo-European notion of “passivity,” such as the promotion of the patient and the demotion of the agent. Instead, the use of passives in Chinese translations appears to be governed by a complex interplay of pragmatic and semantic factors.

• Dokumententyp: Dissertationen (Dissertation, LMU München)
• Keywords: Buddhist Chinese, Chinese Buddhist translations, Middle Indo-Aryan, language contact through translation
• Themengebiete: 200 Religion ; 200 Religion > 290 Andere Religionen ; 800 Literatur ; 800 Literatur > 890 Literatur in anderen Sprachen
• Fakultäten: Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften
• Sprache der Hochschulschrift: Englisch
• Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 17. Februar 2023
• 1. Bericht­erstatter:in: Lehnert, Martin