The language of Chu manuscripts

• Applicant: Dr. Haeree Park
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics ; Asian Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 256853899

The research project proposed here is intended to be a study of Chinese language history, based on the evidence of recently excavated Chinese manuscripts from the ancient state of Chu, dated to circa mid to late 4th century B.C. These Chu manuscripts unearthed so far are completely new kind of source materials for the study of the early Chinese writing system and language history. These manuscripts consist mostly of non-transmitted texts and the script of the manuscripts has graphic forms and usages that have been unknown in the transmitted writing system. On the basis of the new data in the Chu manuscripts, we can now make a full account of various aspects of the early Chinese writing system and associated linguistic phenomena. The outcome of the proposed three year research will be a book on the language of Chu manuscript (project title), which consists of three parts, viz., writing system, phonology and grammar. Details of the research topics surround the issues and desiderata summarized at the end of the project description of this application. Current studies of historical phonology and grammar based on Chu manuscripts are on somewhat shaky ground because the facts on Chu script are not fully investigated. The project aims to first establish facts and methodology for sorting out various historical layers of the graphic usages and forms in the manuscript materials, and then to explore phonological and grammatical features of those different historical stages of the Chinese language.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants