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The basis of coming and going

Language Log 2024-11-19

The protean particle zhī 之 (3 strokes, classifier / radical 丶) has more grammatical functions than you can shake a stick at, e.g.:

(literary) genitive or attributive marker

    indicates that the previous word has possession of the next one

    indicates that the previous word modifies the next one

    particle indicating that the preceding element is specialized or qualified by the next

(archaic)  particle infixed in a subject-predicate construct acting as a nominalizer or indicating a subordinate clause

(literary) the third-person pronoun: him, her, it, them, when it appears in a non-subject position in the sentence

—

(adapted from Wiktionary, with illustrative quotations for each type)

What I find especially remarkable about zhī 之 is that it began as a verb which is usually rendered as "go".  The oracle bone glyph (ca. 1200 BC) used to write 之 is this , which depicts a foot on a base line ("beginning place").

What made me think of 之 a few days ago is the "-basis" of "diabasis", "anabasis", and "katabasis" about which we puzzled in this post.  That may seem like quite a stretch, but there are some striking similarities between the two that caught my attention, though, I caution, by no means do I wish to imply there is any sort of genetic relationship between 之 and "-basis", only a curious correspondence between them that may belie a fundamental / basic trait of human cognitive patterning.  We will proceed slowly, taking this one step at a time, with the understanding that we are walking on two legs, which are — for the sake of this argument — the Indo-European and the Sinitic.

When we think of "basis", what comes to mind is something that serves as a bottom or foundation.  Without rigorous historical linguistic analysis, we would not readily think that the Greek root whence the word comes means "a going, a step; a stand, that whereon one stands", and that derives from the verb bainein βαίνειν "to go, walk, step" which, in turn comes from the PIE root *gwa- "to go, come".  Though "go" and "come" both have to do with movement through space, they are very different — indeed opposite — matters, so I would refer to bainein as a contranym.  Whether it (and its derivatives) means "come" or "go" in a given utterance is determined by context and / or its prefixes:  "anabasis" ("go up"), "katabasis" ("go down"), and "diabasis" ("go across", cf. "dialect" ["speak across"!]).

basis

From Latin basis, from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷémtis, derived from Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (whence also come). Doublet of base.

(Wiktionary)

*gwa- 

*gwā-, also *gwem-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to go, come."

It forms all or part of: acrobat; adiabatic; advent; adventitious; adventure; amphisbaena; anabasis; avenue; base (n.) "bottom of anything;" basis; become; circumvent; come; contravene; convene; convenient; convent; conventicle; convention; coven; covenant; diabetes; ecbatic; event; eventual; hyperbaton; hypnobate; intervene; intervenient; intervention; invent; invention; inventory; juggernaut; katabatic; misadventure; parvenu; prevenient; prevent; provenance; provenience; revenant; revenue; souvenir; subvention; supervene; venire; venue; welcome.

It is the [recte The] hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit gamati "he goes," Avestan jamaiti "goes," Tocharian kakmu "come," Lithuanian gemu, gimti "to be born," Greek bainein "to go, walk, step," Latin venire "to come," Old English cuman "come, approach," German kommen, Gothic qiman.

Now, back to the other leg (rather I should say "foot") of our "come-go" diversion, the Sinitic one.

Cf. Burmese စ (ca., “to start; to begin”) (Schuessler, 2007, p. 613).

Also, as a verb in Classical Chinese / Literary Sinitic, zhī 之 implies "to go, head towards; reach, arrive" (reddit).  Graphically, the character used to write Middle Sinitic tsyi, Old Sinitic /*tə/ (Baxter-Sagart),  /*tjɯ/ (Zhengzhang) shows a foot with a horizontal plane under it indicating the place whence the foot comes.  Cf. IE "basis" for coming and going.

South Coblin:

As to 之  as a verb, my impression of it is that it is a verb of motion whose destination must always be present in the utterance, either literally or by implication through the use of some sort of  concomitant grammatical construction, as in phrases such as 其所之* or  子安之**？, etc. As to directionality with regard to the speaker or other relevant point in the utterance, I must admit that I have never investigated that question. One could determine it by collecting and comparing text examples.

*VHM:  qí suǒ zhī ("where he / she / it / one is heading")

**VHM: zǐ ān zhī ("where are you headed?")

"Coming" and "going" are difficult for L2 speakers to master in English.  I suspect that the same is true for other languages as well.  So much depends upon the perspective from which one views the movement.

 

Selected readings

[Thanks to South Coblin, Axel Schuessler, and Michael Carr]