ALAS  嗚呼

EXCLAMATION EXPRESSing SADNESS OR REGRET. 
Hypernym
  • SADDISTRESS ARISING from BAD THOUGHTS NOW IN ONE'S MIND which CAUSE one to LACK DELIGHT:joy.NB: The words I have chosen to include in this group pose special problems of contrastive analysis. There is something irretrievably diffuse about their usage, in many cases, and in many others the number of relevant examples in the early literature is so small that it is impossible to get anything like a firm grip on their precise semantics. Under these circumstances I have tried to compensate for lack of neat analysis with more quotation, especially from Chǔcí. Throughout this section I quote my teacher David Hawkes' translations, mindful of the fact that many of these were written in the third year of his study of Chinese...
    • DISTRESSFEELING that one's SELF:own SITUATION IS INTENSELY BAD.
      • FEELINGNATURAL REACTION IN one's MIND.
        • REACTCHANGE one's THINKING OR ACTING BECAUSE one is PERCEIVING something....
    Old Chinese Criteria
    [DECLARATIVE/EXCLAMATORY]

    [EMOTIONAL/UNEMOTIONAL]

    [EMPHATIC/UNEMPHATIC]

    [HIGH-DEGREE/LOW-DEGREE]

    1. Wū hū 嗚呼 / 於乎 / 於呼 expresses an emphatic complaint. Note that there is is specially large number of graphic variants used to write this word.

    [EMOTIONAL], [EXCLAMATORY], [HIGH-DEGREE]

    2. A1i zāi 哀哉 adds to the complaint the judgment that something is indeed sad.

    [DECLARATIVE], [EMPHATIC]

    Modern Chinese Criteria
    唉呀

    唉

    哎呀

    哎喲

    喔唷

    什麼

    嘻

    啊

    嘿

    喲

    呀

    呦

    咦

    哎

    唉

    噯

    咳

    嗚呼

    於戲

    於乎

    rough draft to BEGIN TO identify synonym group members for analysis, based on CL etc. 18.11.2003. CH ／

      Words

      哀哉  āi zāi OC: qɯɯl skɯɯ MC: ʔəi tsəi 27 Attributions

      Āi zāi 哀哉 adds to the complaint the judgment that something is indeed sad. [DECLARATIVE], [EMPHATIC]

        Syntactic words
      • VP+Salas for
      • VPibe a tragedy; be deeply tragic.CH
      • VPi(0)(always with understood and unexpressed subject:) what a tragedy!; how deeply tragic!
      嗚呼  wū hū OC: qaa qhaa MC: ʔuo̝ huo̝
      嗚虖  wū hū OC: qaa qhlaa MC: ʔuo̝ huo̝
      於呼  wū hū OC: qaa qhaa MC: ʔuo̝ huo̝ 11 Attributions

      1. Wū hū 嗚呼 expresses an emphatic complaint. Note that there is is specially large number of graphic variants used to write this word. Ancient scribes seem to have been uninterested in the orthography of this word. [EMOTIONAL], [EXCLAMATORY], [HIGH-DEGREE]

        Syntactic words
      • PP+NprOh Npr!
      • PPadSalas
      • PPadVoh, how (the subject) V-ed!
      嗟  jiē juē MC: tsjae OC: skalCH 3 Attributions
        Syntactic words
      • nabautonym"alas"DS
      • padSalasCH
      • ppostadSalasLZ
      已而  yǐ ér OC: k-lɯʔ njɯ MC: jɨ ȵɨ 2 Attributions
        Syntactic words
      • PPexclamatoryI've had it; we're finished
      已  yǐ OC: k-lɯʔ MC: jɨ 2 Attributions
        Syntactic words
      • padSAlas!
      繄  yī OC: qee MC: ʔei 1 Attribution
        Syntactic words
      • padSalas
      於呼  wū hū OC: qaa qhaa MC: ʔuo̝ huo̝ 1 Attribution

      Wū hū 嗚呼 expresses an emphatic exclamatory complaint. >>EXCLAMATORY, HIGH-DEGREE

        Syntactic words
      • PPalas
      於乎  wū hū MC: 'u hu OC: qaa ɢaaLZ 1 Attribution
        Syntactic words
      • PPadS(= wu1hu1 嗚呼) alas!, ah!LZ
      惜乎  xī hū MC: sjek hu OC: sqaɡ ɢaaCH 1 Attribution
        Syntactic words
      • VPiemphaticWhat a pity!CH
      誒  xī OC: qhɯ MC: hɨ 0 Attributions
        Syntactic words

      Existing SW for

      Here are Syntactic Words already defined in the database: