《顏淵》 Passage 12.12

the Master said

• 子 the Master, i.e. Confucius (honorific title)
• 曰 said

a few words, a fragment of speech

• 片 partial, fragmentary; a small piece or one side of something — some translators read this as 'one side/party' rather than 'a fragment', i.e. testimony from a single litigant
• 言 words, speech

孔安國 in 何晏's 集解 glosses 片 as 偏, one side's testimony (Slingerland, Ames & Rosemont, Lau, Chin); 朱熹 reads 片言 as 半言, half a word (Legge, Peimin Ni, Roberts, Watson).

can, to be able to

• 可 can, to be capable of
• 以 modal particle marking ability: to be able to

to decide, settle a lawsuit

• 折 to decide, adjudicate, settle (a dispute)
• 獄 lawsuit, legal case, litigation

nominalizing particle: the one who, that which

rhetorical conjecture frame: wouldn't it be...?, isn't it...?

• 其 modal particle of conjecture: perhaps, surely
• 也 final particle paired with the following 與/哉 in a question
• 與 interrogative final particle

其 marks tentative conjecture ('perhaps') and 也與 forms a tag question ('is it not so?'); together they cast the identification of Zilu as a rhetorical question rather than a flat assertion

You (Zhong You), Zilu's given name

Zilu, disciple of Confucius

• 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
• 路 second element of the name Zilu, a disciple of Confucius

not, never

to delay overnight, put off until the next day

a promise