BORROWING AND INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT IN LEXICAL CHANGE- A COMPARISON OF TAIWANESE WORDS AND THEIR MANDARIN EQUIVALENTS

从台湾话和华语之间的对等语的比较看语汇变化的两个模式：移借和内部发展

郑良伟(Robert Cheng)

《Journal of Chinese Linguistics》 15卷1期 (1987/01) Pp. 105-131

摘要

The purpose of this paper is to compare etymologically the words found in Taiwanese texts and their Mandarin equivalents, and to attempt to explain why there is a clear-cut tendency for the content words to share a much higher rate of identical etymons between the two varieties of Chinese than do the function words. Comparisons of either group of vocabulary were made in terms of inventories and running texts. In particular, I would like to make the following points on the basis of statistical data: 1) The higher percentage of same etymons between Taiwanese and Mandarin content words is due to a higher rate of retention from the proto-language, in addition to a higher rate of borrowing between the two languages through indirect or direct contact in the past. 2) The lower rate of same etymons between the Taiwanese and Mandarin function words is due to a much lower rate of retention of function words than content words from the proto-language, in addition to the rarity of the borrowing of function words from one language into another. 3) If the rate of etymon replacement among the function words is particularly high, and if replacement due to borrowing is rare, then replacement of etymons among function words must be due to internal development. 4) Among the major trends of language change that have affected replacement of etymons (replacement of monosyllabic words with polysyllabic ones through compounding and affixation, simplification of syllabic structure, increase of grammatical marker's as a result of refinement of grammatical categorization and introduction of new parts of speech, and contraction of two morpheme-syllables into single syllables) at least the last two processes are found among the function words but rarely among the content words.

並列摘要

本文比较华语（即华人社会的官话）和台湾话之间的词汇异同。如看文章里所用的不同的词汇，实词（指名，动，形等三词类）占30％，虚词占50％之多。如比较词典里常用语的不同，实词占34.4％，虚词占70.4％。两语之间虚词的不同都多于实词的不同。如把古文译成今日两语，虚词的变化大于实词的变化。两语间实词相同的比例较高应归因为较容易移借，又较容易保留古词汇。虚词变化较快，既非归因于向其他方言或语言移借，那么应该是经过内部发展的变化。本文观察汉语二三千年来语言的五种变化是否对实词和虚词有不同的影响。西化的语汇绝大多数只影响到实词，而没有影响到虚词。汉语语法的变化所带来的词汇变化只限于虚词。影响到实词的只限于附加成分（即前缀，后缀，中插成分）。语音简化大致上是实词虚词都影响。多音词的增加经过复合或附加的过程，多半影响实词，而很少影响虚词。两语之间的移借则只限于复合词，而很少牵涉到附加语。两个音节合成一个音节，只发生于虚词或后缀成分。