Function Words in Modern Chinese and Changes in New Poetry

Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.9, 2014

Function Words in Modern Chinese and Changes in New Poetry

(Abstract)

Wang Zelong and Qian Renren

The introduction into poetry of a large number of function words or “empty words” has directly influenced the modern transformation of Chinese poetic forms. At the turn of the 19th/20th century, science-oriented thinking swept China, resulting in a dramatic rise in the use of these words. Their frequent use in poetry was a product of the construction of modern poetic forms based on regarding European grammar as scientific and adapting to it. The use of a large number of function words in poetry hastened the renewal of vocabulary, grammatical systems and ideas of poetic language, facilitated the transformation of the language of Chinese poetry, and promoted the formal evolution of modern Chinese poetry in terms of sentence structure, form and rhythm. It also meant that the lyric function of traditional Chinese poetry took a diversified path toward the development of narrative and philosophical functions. The emphasis on reason and the integration of a narrative function gave modern Chinese poetry new dimensions in the form of rational lyricism and intellectual aesthetics.