Idiomaticity and Classical Traditions in Some East Asian Languages
1This research is supported by the Research Grants Council Committee of the University Grants Council of HongKong ((1) General Research Fund (GRF) Project No. 844012 “Quadrasyllabic Idiomatic Expressions (QIEs) in Chineseand neighboring Languages: An Investigation into Linguistic and Cultural History” and (2) GRF Project No.148908 “AQuantitative and Qualitative Comparison of Word Formation in Modern Standard Chinese and Early Modern Chinese”).I am grateful for comments leading up to this paper from co-investigators in the two projects: Andy Chin, HintatCheung, and particularly Shin Kataoka who has drawn my attention to many of the examples in this paper.39On the other hand, when two related languages have dissimilar terms to express similar objects orevents, then the difference could well represent salient non-linguistic variations. For example, theword for government in Indonesia is Pemerintah and in Malay Kerajaan. In the latter case ofMalay, the word reflects the structure of government involving constitutional monarchy (asindicated by “Rajah”) whereas the case of Indonesian reflects an organization structure presidedover by a leader. The form Selamat means “hello” in Indonesia and Malaysia, originating fromSemitic languages: Arabic Salam “peace” e.g. Salaam Alaikum “peace be with you” and HebrewShalom (peace). But in the Philippine languages, it means “thank you”. This shift of meaning maynot be unreasonable if we consider the broader context of language contact interaction in which wefind the universal and customary conversation opening and closing moves, which are the same inIslamic societies (Salaam Alaikum), in stark contrast to English (with hello-hi and goodbyerespectively) and other languages. In the exchange of identical but multifunctional pragmaticexpressions during the opening and closing communicative moves among participants, a possiblesemantic switching taking place could be understandable.In Asia, two long standing major classical traditions have been recognized:(I) Sanskrit base [Indosphere2]Devanagari, on which the Sanskrit writing system is based, has influenced the writing systems ofIndosphere languages of the South Asian subcontinent, Burmese, Thai, Lao, Tibetan etc, but notIndonesia and Malaysia in which once dominant Hindu Kingdoms in the Indonesian archipelagohave given way to Islamic sultanates, with exceptions to be found in Bali, for example. In theselanguages, there has not been much evidence of the Indic past in non-materialistic terms, other thanloan words, while Jawi, the script derived from Arbic, still survives.(II) Sinitic base [Sinosphere]Its emblematic logographic writing system has greatly influenced the historical development ofSinosphere writing systems in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and among other ethnic groups like the Nasietc, on which the associated classical traditions, including the Chinese classical language have hadsignificant impact. Thus their students to this day are often exposed to literary classics of Chineseorigin such as the Chronicles of Three Kingdoms (三國演義) and Water Margin or All Men andBrothers (水滸傳). This tradition bears interesting comparison with the lesser trend of students inThailand, Laos, and Cambodia (but not Indonesia or Malaysia) studying the Indic epic Ramayama.One distinctive feature of languages associated with Sinosphere is the importance given torelatively unique idiomatic expressions such as 不三不四 [not-3-not-4] “improper”, similar toEnglish “neither fish nor fowl” but with stronger negative connotations. For example, civil servantsin Japan, Korea and Vietnam, in order to gain promotion, have to take language examinations inwhich there are expectations on familiarity with such expressions. This is often seen as a difficultand arduous task because of the drastic typological linguistic differences between Japanese, Koreanand Vietnamese on the one hand, and Chinese on the other hand. Thus, considerable efforts have tobe made by the civil servant aspiring to promotion.It is interesting to note that whereas Korea and Japan, for example, have adopted the Chineselogographic writing system, and have even incorporated it into basically at one time or another 2 Matisoff (1990) proposed the terms Sinosphere and Indosphere to distinguish between two major and oftensuperimposed cultural traditions within Asia.40bimodal writing systems. On the other hand, related languages such as Mongolians and Manchusswitched to the Chinese language when they conquered all of China, rather than imposed their ownlanguage as the native language, with possible adaptation or adoption of the logographic script.There were some minor unsuccessful attempts such as that by the Kitan Kingdom (契丹) whichdeveloped a demotic script, and the use of Phags-Pa script of the Mongols, which though squarishin shape and written from right to left, was much more influenced by the writing system of theTibetans who have shared Lamaism as a common religion. 3This is because in puritanical times, churches would have been good examples of frugality and so there would nothave been much leftover for the resident mice there. The use of QIE in Chinese is pervasive in many domains of discourse and language use. Forexamples:(13) Greetings: 好久不見 [very-long-no-see] “long time no see”, 不見不散 [no-see-no-disperse] “wait until we meet”(14) Slogans: 安全第一 [safe-whole-number one] “safety is top priority”, 酒後勿駛[drink-after-don’t-drive] “don’t drive if you drink”(15) Movie names: 窈窕淑女 [slim-fit-gentle-lady] “My Fair Lady”, 浩劫重生[calamity-again-alive] “Cast Away”(16) Advertisement (Real Estate): 全海靚裝 [all-sea-beautiful-renovation] “fullseaview”, 樓皇氣派 [building-emperor-air-atmosphere] “imperial bearing”Chinese QIEs are relatively distinct linguistic structures, standing out from regular language,comparable to the use in English of Latin or Latinate expressions Lacuna/ lacunae; Caveat emptor.Specifically, some defining characteristics of QIEs may be summarized as follows:a) Four syllables or logographsb) Relatively fixed structure and patternsc) Figurative meaning and semantic opacityThe quadrasyllabic structure draws on a basic disyllabic propensity in Chinese, reflecting, forexample, a common reduplicative tendency in addressing close relatives:媽 ma à 媽媽 ma-ma “mother”爸 ba à 爸爸 ba-ba “father”姐 jie à 姐姐 jie-jie “sister”The quadrasyllabic propensity is further evidenced by contractions from pentasyllabic expressions,for examples: (17) 傻人有傻福 à 傻有傻福[Silly-person-has-silly-blessing] à [silly-has-silly-blessing]“Innocence is blessing”(18) 新瓶裝舊酒 à 新瓶舊酒[New-bottle-contains-old-wine] à [new-bottle-old-wine]“New wine in old bottle” 4Zhu-ge-liang 諸葛亮 and Kong-ming 孔明 are names of the same minister whose wisdom is legendary from theChronicles of the Three Kingdoms. In everyday language, quadrasyllabic, pentasyllabic expressions or expressions ofother length may be found but the more frequent use of the former, especially in more formal discourse, would signifyerudition.43QIEs involve discoursal opacity, which entails metalinguistic ability to differentiate between literaland metaphorical usage, which in turn can draw on logical deduction and can project positive ornegative polar sentiments as rhetorical devices. For instance, the QIE 孤男寡女 [lonely-mansingle-woman] “unmarried couple” has negative