Page 13 - EALC C306/505

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Grammar and Notes

1.1 The equational sentence (X=Y)
仁人心也

This sentence type represents the most basic form of wényánwén [hereafter, WYW]
nominal sentence. It is called “equational” because the basic structure of the sentence
links two nouns or noun phrases X and Y in such a way as to convey the information that:

X =Y

In English, we handle this type of structure through use of the “copula” (the verb ‘to be’):
“X is Y,” and MC uses an identical structure: “X shì 是 Y.” But WYW does not possess a
verb analogous to these copulas. Instead, the equational sentence employs no verb, but
signals the juxtaposition of two noun phrases by appending the particle 也. Thus,

X Y 也

functions identically with,
X is Y

although 也 does not function as a verb or as a copula. It merely signifies the type of
relationship between the two nouns or noun phrases in the sentence.

1.2 Adjunct + Root ( A+R ) phrases (Noun + Noun type)

人心

This compound, “the mind of a human being,” juxtaposes two nouns without further
grammatical indicators to create a complex noun (in English, the phrase “person mind”
would be confusing; we require Adj + Noun: “human mind”). Word order alone must
establish that the first noun is “subordinate to”, or “modifies,” the second. This is a very
common type of phrase.

In structures of this kind, the second element is grammatically indispensable, while the
first element is not. Thus, in speaking of rén-xin, we are essentially referring to a type of
xin, not a type of rén. For this reason, the second element is referred to as the “Root [R],”
while the first element will be called an “Adjunct [A].”

In an A+R phrase that consists of two nouns, we may think of the phrase in two ways.
We may either consider it a case of an ellipsed (omitted) zhi 之 (in this case, picturing 人
心 as a compression of 人之心) or consider that the juxtaposition of the two nouns treats