“不善於”新論

A study on the andlyzing the “bushanyu” and some problems related with it.

《Xiandai Hanyu Cidian》is one of the most popular dictionaries among the Chinese. According to the dictionary, “bushan” is kind of double classification of words, i.e., adjective and verb. It also describe that the verb “bushan” is in a parrallel relationship with the “bushanyu” I think that “bushanyu” is made of “bu”and “shanyu”, and there is no new meaning derived from them. So I argue that “bushanyu” is not a word, but a phrase. In Modern Chinese, when many adjectives and intransitive verbs are followed by the function word “yu”, many of them acquire the roles of transitive verbs by emitting “yu”. Bur the transitive verb “bushan” is quite different from them. In my opinion, “shan” originally has the function of a transitive verb, and “bushan” comes from combining the negative adverb “bu” and the transitive verb “shan”. So I would argue that “bushanyu” and “bushan” actually have a paralled relationship in meaning and structure.