The Examination of Regional Distribution and Stylistics of Object-verb Word Order inBook of Songs

Book of Songsis the first anthology of poetry in China. Previous studies on this anthology have rarely explored the Object-verb (OV) word order from the perspectives of regional distribution and styles. In terms of regional distribution, the OV word order is primarily found in the thirteen Guo Feng( Folk Songs of States) poems other than Folk Songs of State Qiand Folk Songs of State Lu. Regarding styles, the use of OV structures, such as interrogative pronouns preposed, negative pronouns preposed, and zhi之adopted to form a structure as ( wei唯) O zhi之V, is mainly seen in the Folk Songs of Statepoems. The usage is associated with common language styles. Comparatively, the structures, like shi是V shi是V or wei唯 O shi是V formed with shi是, are predominantly found in Ya(雅 Great Odes) and Song(颂 The Carols) poems. The employment of the structure in Yaand Songcorresponds to formal and ceremonial styles respectively. Studying the regional distribution and styles of OV word order in Book of Songsnot only helps in understanding OV word order comprehensively, but also lays the groundwork for research on OV word order in Old Chinese. The studying, especially, contributes to the enrichment and refinement of stylistics with valuable linguistic material.