User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: SBTG: Confucius
June 5, 2008 at 1:19 PM“三人行，必有我师焉”
这个”焉”到底是代词还是语气词？
Please let me show you the result of my “incomprehensive” research on the usage of 焉 (yan1) in classical Chinese (文言文), especially the one seen in the famous verse “三人行，必有我师焉” from the Analects (论语, lun2 yu3).
To conclude, I’m sorry that I still don’t have a clear answer to the problem raised by bankangde a few days ago, but I think it probably won’t hurt you, if interested in classical Chinese (文言), to read this inconclusive comment.
（A）Oh my goodness, I've found the Japanese book titled “中国古典に於ける矣，焉の解釈” (How to interpret 矣 and 焉 in classical Chinese literature) on the Internet, which seems to suggest that it is NOT so easy to properly interpret 焉.
（B）Although 焉 has several usages, it WAS originally a 代词 (pronoun), and it later gradually obtained the secondary function as 语气词 (interjection). For example, 说文解字 (100 A.D.) defines 焉 as 是(this, here)…just like 焉亦是也。
（C）I’ve managed to find an example sentence where 焉 (pronoun “于之”) is placed after a noun, not a verb or an adjective；“万取千焉” (孟子, Mencius). This phrase means “取千于万” (to take 1,000 from 10,000) in modern Mandarin.
（D）Interpretations are sometimes different depending on person. In the case of “于我心有戚戚焉” (孟子，In my heart, there was a responsive feeling), the 焉 means 于之, and the 于 is shifted to the beginning of the sentence for emphasis.
（E）I found the above example in two of my classical Chinese textbooks, and one says the 焉 still preserves the function of “于之”, but another says, wow, the 焉 already becomes a kind of interjection because 于 is separated from 焉 (= 于之).
（F）One of my 古汉语词典 even offers such a confusing definition as “combined feature of pronoun and interjection (代词兼语气词)” for 焉. Come on! As you can see, sometimes there is no distinct line between 焉 (pronoun) and 焉 (interjection)
SO WHAT? So, I understand well now why Cpod and most Japanese textbooks say the 焉 in “必有我的师焉” is an interjection, and I also think that is not necessarily wrong, although “焉 = pronoun” theory seems to be popular in China.
Now let’s look at “三人行，必有我师焉” again. If you are a theoretical guy, you might think the 焉 is a pronoun, because it’s more plausible grammatically. And if you are sentimental guy, just like me, you would certainly prefer 焉 (interjection)....!!!
Posted on: Pedestrian Peril
June 5, 2008 at 12:02 PMHi man2toe,
Let me try!
你出门的时候，怎么没有锁门呢？你太粗心大意了！
锁门 (lock)
Posted on: 理想女人
June 5, 2008 at 11:50 AMHi auntie68,
Thanks a lot! Probably you don’t know that I’m a guy who never read classic novels in English (and even in Japanese)! Believe it or not, I didn’t know the real name of Mark Twain was Samuel Clemens until yesterday, and this is NOT joke. As for 意中人，I just hope that sirup wouldn’t say “我妈妈是我的意中人” in front of native Chinese.
Posted on: Pageant Final Episode
June 5, 2008 at 11:27 AMHi John,
Life is much nastier than you would imagine!
You can see and hear a lot more similar things
here in a small local city in China. 上有政策下有对策！
Posted on: Lesson
June 5, 2008 at 10:59 AMHi light487,
If you'd like to play it safe, you can say 每一个人 (mei3 yi1 ge ren2) instead of 每个人. Please don't say you can't tell the difference between those two pronunciations!
Posted on: 理想女人
June 5, 2008 at 10:22 AMHi clay,
Really? In my understanding, "beloved" is usually used with the words (in the case of "person") such as mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, and a chubby dog. On the other hand, I think that 意中人 means, in a sense, a person who you love but not "obtained" yet,i.e. a secret crush boy or girl, just like sushan said.
Posted on: Seoul
June 5, 2008 at 5:45 AM"人家" (ren2 jia) is a somewhat difficult word for us foreign leraners to deal with. It means "people, they，other guys, he/she", and sometimes even "I". And its pronunciation...., please don't take it for 忍者 (ren3 zhe3)!!
Posted on: SBTG: Confucius
June 5, 2008 at 1:26 PMHi auntie68,
I believe that you’ve already got the answer to the question yourself, but let me tell you an answer, just in case. 杀鸡(焉)用牛刀 should be translated as 杀鸡的时候，你(怎么)用牛刀呢？in modern Mandarin. And this 焉 has an ironical meaning.