Page:A Grammar of the Chinese Colloquial Language commonly called the Mandarin Dialect (IA dli.granth.92779).pdf/5



The study of the Chinese language is much too extensive to be conveniently comprised within the limits of a single work. The elucidation of one portion only of Chinese grammar has been undertaken in the present work, viz. that of the mandarin dialect. The field thus embraced coincides with that of Prémare in the first part of his work, and with the second division of Remusat's grammar. I very much regret that I have not yet seen M. Bazin's work on colloquial mandarin published this year. The manner in which this author prefers to discuss the spoken language, is however clearly seen in his earlier brochure on the same subject, given to the public several years since. His aim has been to exhibit in all their copiousness and variety, the laws of combination existing in groups of words, and further to trace the origin and progress of the mandarin language by means of its literature. This mode of treatment is in harmony with the advancement of modern philology generally, and has resulted in several valuable contributions to Chinese philology in particular.

The works of Morrison and Marshman on the grammar of this language, fail to convert to the mind of the student, the richness of its idioms, and the extended development of its peculiar principles. They were not aware of what their predecessors had already accomplished, and consequently spent several years in acquiring such a knowledge on the subject, as may now be gained in one, by means of Prémare and the other helps since placed in the hands in the learner.

Prémare himself with all his breath of view, learning and taste, lived too early to be influenced by modern improvements in the study of languages. That part of his treatise which is occupied