MCLC: dissent speaks code (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Costas Kouremenos <enaskitis at gmail.com>
Subject: dissent speaks code (1)
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In the article by Xiao Qiang and Perry Link, I read:

<<bei, which originally meant "quilt" or, as a verb, "to cover," but about
a century ago became a grammatical device used for translating the passive
voice in Western languages>>

Is it so recent? A book in French I have, called Initiation à la syntaxe
chinoise, by XU Dan, (Asiathe`que), says that bei dates back to before the
3rd c. BC and gained traction after the Han and especially under the Tang,
when it replaced wei. And the author cites a 1988 article by Tang Yuming (唐
钰明）, 唐至清的被字句，from 中国语言，6, 459-468.

Costas Kouremenos