The term "Classical Chinese" refers to the written language of the classical period of Chinese literature, from the end of the Spring and Autumn period (early 5th century BC) to the founding of the Qin dynasty in 221 BC[1]—or in a broader sense to the end of the Han dynasty in 220 AD.
This stands directly in contrast with vernacular Chinese, in which two-character words are extremely common.
This phenomenon exists in part because compounding was used to resolve ambiguities as sound changes created homophones among words.
Neither a topic, nor the subject nor objects are mandatory, being often dropped when their meaning is understood (pragmatically inferable), and copular sentences often do not have a verb.
[7] With the absence of inflectional morphology, Classical Chinese is largely a zero-marking language, except that possessors and relative clauses are usually dependent-marked with a grammatical particle.
[9] Scholars of Classical Chinese grammar notably disagree on how to further divide these two categories exactly, but a classification using word classes similar to those of Latin (noun, adjective, verb, pronoun, etc.)
(Zhongyong's)父fùfather利lìprofit其 然 也qí rán yěthe thing (that he be invited){} 父 利 {其 然 也}{} fù lì {qí rán yě}(Zhongyong's) father profit {the thing}The father considered the thing as profitable.For an adjective, it becomes an observation in the form of "consider (object) (the adjective)".
For instance: 先xiānfirst破pòdefeat秦qínQin入rùenter咸陽XiányángXianyang者zhěperson王wàngcrown之zhīhim先 破 秦 入 咸陽 者 王 之xiān pò qín rù Xiányáng zhě wàng zhīfirst defeat Qin enter Xianyang person crown him"He who defeated Qin and entered Xianyang first would be crowned.
"Literal translation: (Fulfilling the agreement that) the person who defeated the Qin dynasty and entered Xianyang first, [people] would king him.
Classical Chinese interrogative pronouns and adverbs are notably polysemic, many of them bearing multiple meanings.
[13] The usual order of core constituents in Classical Chinese is subject, verb, and direct object (SVO).
(Analects of Confucius 4.6)Interrogative pronouns similarly generally precede the verb when they're the direct object.
(Analects of Confucius 6.11)惡wūin what在zàibe in其qí3.POSS為wéibe民mínpeople父fùfather母mǔmother也！yěTOP惡 在 其 為 民 父 母 也！wū zài qí wéi mín fù mǔ yě{in what} {be in} 3.POSS be people father mother TOP"Where is his being the father and mother of the People?!"
(Mencius 1B.4)In the latter example, the predicate's verbal phrase is 惡在 wū zài "to be/lie where", while the following words (until 也 yě) are the subject.
(Tao Te Ching 42)Classical Chinese typically does not use a copula verb to express positive nominal predication ("X is a/the Y").
Instead, it places two noun phrases (one of which could be a pronoun) followed by a final particle, usually 也 yě.
(Tao Te Ching 1, transmitted version)道dàoway可kěcan be道dàospeak也，yě,TOP,非fēinot be恆héngeternal道dàoway也yěSTV道 可 道 也， 非 恆 道 也dào kě dào yě, fēi héng dào yěway {can be} speak TOP, {not be} eternal way STV"If the Way can be stated, it is not the eternal way."