Ruth Sasaki's translation of the Record of Linji/Rinzai is invaluable in this respect.
(pdf http://info.stiltij.nl/publiek/meditati ... sasaki.pdf http://www.amazon.com/Record-Nanzan-Lib ... =sr_1_cc_1 )
The notes section provides quite a good introduction to the grammatical peculiarities of these texts. The notes cover vocab, historical context, doctrinal meaning as well as grammar. Here are a couple of the interesting grammatical points from the first dozen pages of the 200 or so pages of notes.
(試)...看 - imperative, 'Do...' 'Let..'
Eg.
Bai Juyi: 唯求造化力 / 試爲駐春看 All I ask of Creation / is to please stop the passing of Spring
Ljl: 對衆證據看 Let him try proving himself before the assembly.
他 as suffix with no specific meaning
Eg.
Ljl: 妨他別人請問 You’re keeping the others from asking questions
Ljl: 知他是凡是聖 Who knows whether he’s an ordinary person or a sage?
cf. 管他, 從他,任他
也無 just indicates a question, not necessarily '...or not'.
Ljl: 爾道好喝也無 Do you say that was a good shout?
The compound has the following orthographical variants: 也不, 也否, 也未, 也摩, 以無, 以下, and 以否.
還 as interrogative, not 'is there still...'
Ljl: 還有賓主也無 Was there a guest and a host?
取 as suffix
Ljl: 要會臨濟賓主句, 問取堂中二首座 If you of the assembly want to understand the ‘guest and host’ that I speak of, ask the two head monks of the halls.
祇 for emphasis
Ljl: 祇如石室行者.. in the case of the lay worker Shishi
cf. 且如
但有 whoever/whatever
Ljl: 但有來者,不虧欠伊 whoever comes to me, I will not fail him.
=所有, 諸有, 應有
與麼 thus, like this, like that
Ljl: 若與麼來,恰似 失卻。不與麼來,無繩自縛。Should he come in a particular way, it’s just as if he’d lost [himself]. Should he not come in a particular way, he’d have bound himself without a rope.
= 恁麼, 恁的, 恁地
The full note by Sasaki and co. on 與麼 is fascinating, I'll paste the whole thing:
與麼, along with its negative 不與麼, shows the Chan masters’ penchant for giving metaphysical content to simple everyday words. (Another good example is 遮箇 [or 這箇], a demonstrative meaning “this” that was early used to indicate absolute reality.) Chan masters from late Tang times handled 與麼 and 不與麼 as affirmative and negative compounds and attributed profound meanings to them, a tendency reflected in the traditional Japanese Zen reading fuyomo ni kitareba (followed by Dōchū) for the negative form of the expression.
Although we have adopted a relatively straightforward reading of 不與麼, the metaphysical overtones of this and the affirmative 與麼 in the present context should not be overlooked. The Japanese Sōtō monk Dōgen Kigen 道元希玄 (1200–1253) devoted the entire ninth fascicle of his great work Shōbōgenzō 正法眼藏 to elucidating the metaphysics of these two terms, there written in the variant forms 恁麼 and 不恁麼 (t 82: 124a–127a). Also, in the section on Zhaozhou Congshen in zj 18 we find:[A monk] asked: “Do you associate with the man who comes thus [與麼]?” The master said, “I do.” “Do you associate with the man who does not come thus [不與麼]?” The master said, “I do.” The monk asked: “To be sure, you are free to associate with the man who comes thus, but how do you associate with the man who does not come thus?” The master said: “Stop, stop! No need to speak. My dharma is wonderful and difficult to conceive of.”