This paper seeks to clarify the status of direct and indirect objects in Archaic Chinese from a cognitive linguistics perspective, and with this clarification, proposes that the transitive clause in Archaic Chinese could be further sub-divided into transitive-DO clause and transitive-IO clause, and that this distinction is syntactically viable and conceptually motivated. Finally, this paper aims to provide a preliminary solution to the alternation between “V+O” and “V+yu+O” structure in Archaic Chinese.

直接賓語; 間接賓語; 及物性; 上古漢語; 認知語法

direct object; indirect object; transitivity; Archaic Chinese; Cognitive Grammar