In the writings in classical Chinese, the cancellation of independence of sentences refers to the phenomenon that the subject and the predicate can be connected with one word之. The pattern created by such structure indicates that it is not a sentence but a subject-predicate word group and is acted as a component of a sentence such as subject or object. The foreign students in Chinese language school know that the writings in classical Chinese are difficult to learn and acquire. Thus, the foreign students should learn the language points related to such writing style carefully.

Let’s make an example first. The sentence 父母之爱子,则为之计深远 is the first example. The first half of the sentence reads that 父母之爱子. If the first half of the sentence omits the word之, then the first half of the sentence will be 父母爱孩子. The subject, predicate and object are all complete and the transformed one is a complete sentence. But if the sentence is added with the word 之, it becomes a word group and becomes the subject of the second half of the whole sentence. Thus, the word之cancels the independence status of the previous first half of the sentence.

The cancellation of the independence of the sentence indicates the word之is in the middle of the subject and predicate. The combined sentence will not be a whole sentence or the meaning of the speaker has not finished. Now let’s see some example to reinforce the understanding of the grammatical points. the first example is 臣之壮也,犹不如人 I was worse than others when I was young. The phrase 臣壮can be used as a subject-predicate sentence but the addition of the word之makes the phrase 臣之壮也 play the role of adverbial.

The second sentence is吾妻之美我者，私我也 my wife thinks that I am handsome because she has preference for me. The words 美and私 are all used as verbs. The sentence吾妻美我 can be a subject-predicate sentence. However, the addition of the word 之 to the sentence will makes the phrase 吾妻之美我 the subject of the whole sentence吾妻之美我者，私我也. When the foreign students learn Chinese in China, they should learn the usage of the specific word and grammatical points.

The above examples are all combined with subject and predicate and they can indicate complete meaning of ones sense. The addition of the word之 cancels the independence of the sentence.