Chinese languages

I am compiling a list of negatives and positives used in Classical Chinese:

不 - negater of verbs/actions
未 - negator of actions (not yet)
無 - negator of existence (none)
非 - negator of nouns (it is not)
勿 - negative imperative (do not)
莫 - negative distributive (there is no case of)
免 - negator of requirement (no need)

可- can (opposite of 勿)
能 - can (opposite of 勿)
必- must (opposite of 免)
有 - existence (opposite of 無)

I am trying to find out the word for "yes", i.e. just affirming a statement or identity, e.g. "yes, I am such-and-such". I am aware that 是 cannot be used, as it means "this". If so, is the word 然? I note that it is used in 孟子 on its own to denote "yes, the previous statement is so".

yoz...actualli there are still quite a number of others...

不要- 勿 休 別
不是- 否 毋 非
沒有- 無
不能- ??
不可- 莫 叵
不用- 免
還沒- 未

as for 是, wenyan is 乃

therefore, I am so-and-so becomes

吾乃某某也.

The 也 functions much as -desu in Japanese.

And of course, 不是 is 非也.

Hope it helps in any way =P

Hi, Amego,

Thanks. Interesting that you brought up the word 乃. I heard a phrase used in the movie 風雲, "此乃是非之地". That got me wondering: Is the subject of the sentence "是非之地" (i.e. "decision ground") or "非之地" (i.e. "evil ground"). In other words, is the imperative particle "乃" or "乃是"?

Hope I am making sense.

Regards,
Mark

Mark Yong wrote:Hi, Amego,

Thanks. Interesting that you brought up the word 乃. I heard a phrase used in the movie 風雲, "此乃是非之地". That got me wondering: Is the subject of the sentence "是非之地" (i.e. "decision ground") or "非之地" (i.e. "evil ground"). In other words, is the imperative particle "乃" or "乃是"?

Hope I am making sense.

Regards,
Mark

Yoyo Mark...Well this is an interesting qns....i will give u a complete answer =p

First lets look at e phrase...此-乃是-非之地 & 此-乃-是非之地...both are possible...so if you can listen to the phrase from 風雲 again, then look out whether its 此乃是<pause>非之地 or 此乃<pause>是非之地...its probably the latter, so the ans is out...but we cannot assume now....

In my dict, it says,

乃：[副]乃是，就是
[注意] “乃”不等於是， 不能算是動詞或係詞.
我們可以說 “不是”，但不能說“不乃”.由此可證明它不是單純的動詞或係詞.

Therefore officially, 乃 cannot exist alone.

BUT i've got some solid examples that it can,

"失敗乃成功之母。" Failure precedes success.

Haha...but yet i have an INTERESTING example....

"錢財乃是身外物。" Smooth...think tt's wat ppl says...
"錢財乃身外之物。" Flowing...
"錢財乃身外物。" Seems to be missing something...
"錢財乃是身外之物。" Quite smooth...


I think the above is e ultimate example...therefore BOTH terms makes sense....it depends on the very context ba...

Therefore, to your question, based on my experience and logic,
"此乃是非之地",

"乃"為係詞,

"是非之地"為名詞

P.S. 此-乃是-非之地...is not very smooth...

haha okok...i don act chim le....hope it ans ur qns =p

Thanks, Amego. That really helped to clear things up. My Classical Chinese text - Michael A. Fuller's "An Introduction to Literary Chinese" - lists all the words for "no", but not for "yes". So far, I have only been able to find 然. But 然 is used in the context of "...是這樣". What I was also looking for was "這個是...", which you have identified as 乃.

Cheers,
Mark

失敗乃成功之母 nai is 動詞 here.
副詞 for nai is for 竟﹐居然﹐才﹐始
連詞 nai is 然後﹐卻﹐而﹐若。
代詞for nai is 他﹐你 。
諾 is a reply for yes.

I heard a phrase used in the movie 風雲, "此乃是非之地". That got me wondering: Is the subject of the sentence "是非之地" (i.e. "decision ground") or "非之地" (i.e. "evil ground").