This article is devoted to a semantico-syntactic analysis of the use of seven markers of negation in Early Archaic Chinese, especially in the Zhou bronze inscriptions. The negative BU 不 which is used with intransitive verbal predicates or with adjectives, establishes a descriptive relationship between the subject and the predicate in its clause; it only shows a simple descriptive intention and takes an integral part in the presupposition. The negative marker FU 弗 is fully adverbial and is used, essentially, with transitive verbs. The marker FEI 非, establishes an attributive, descriptive relationship between the two terms of the predication inside the clause just as does BU; but it introduces a polemic value in expressing the falsity of a presupposition. The marker WU2 毋, in contrast with WU1 勿, does not come under the category of a deontic modality. The obligation which it shows does not come from the speaker (or from any other source) but is internal to the subject-predicate relationship. The negation in this case is to be taken as a statement of fact and not as an injunction. However, according to the observations here, WU2 毋 refers to the epistemic modal category. That why it can express the double value of both "certainty" and “necessity” according to the context. The negative WANG 勿 (the negative counterpart of YOU 有 "existence" or "possession") is used to express the possession of dependence. In addition, because of its existential value, it allows for presenting certain terms in both a restrictive and an extensive sense. Finally WU3 無 is most often attached to a substantive and forms thus a marginal expansion (in a syntactically dependent position) serving to characterize a nominal phrase, a verbal phrase, or an entire clause.
Elements of Moral Maturity