A MOTIVATION FOR THE REPLACEMENT OF CHINESE FUNCTION WORDS

There is a common phenomenon that some coverbs (prepositions) have been gradually replaced by other functionally similar coverbs in the development of Chinese language, such examples like the locative coverbs YU, ZHI and JI have been replaced by ZAI. Different theories have been proposed to account this phenomenon of replacement. Given that the major function of language is for communication, I believe that the interaction of speaker and hearer, especially the speaker's role in the communication is the motivation for the replacement. This study has demonstrated that the speaker's expressivity motivates the replacement through a special case study on JI which has evolved from a verb to a coverb, to a conjunction and eventually disappeared in modern spoken Chinese. The failure of JI when it competes with its synonyms YU, ZAI and YUU is because its meaning and function are too narrow. The replacement of YU by other more specific function words is because of its over-generalized meaning and function which cause ambiguity. The disappearance of JI and replacement of YU by other function words is that these two words are insufficient in terms of expressivity.

關鍵字

Classical Chinese ； replacement of function words ； motivation of change ； expressivity ； specialization

並列摘要

在汉语发展史中，常见到一个现象就是一些词渐渐被其它功能相同的词所代替，比如处所介词“于／於＂，“至”和“及”被“在”所代替。很多语言学家运用不同的理论来解说这种“词汇替换”的现象。由于语言的主要功能是用来交际，所以“词汇替换”的动力应该是说话人和听话人的互动，而说话人的作用尤为重要。本篇文章通过“及”由一个动词变成一个介词，又成为一个连词，最后在现代汉语口语中消失的变化过程来证明说话人的“表达性”推动了“词汇替换”，进而解释“及”字在与其同义词“于／於”，“在”和“与”字的竞争过程中因其语义和功能过于狭小而失败。而“于／於”字由于其语义和功能过于宽泛，易于引起歧义，故被其它意义更为具体的功能词所替换。“及”字的消失和“于／於”的功能被替代都因其“表达性”不足所致。

並列關鍵字

古汉语；功能词替换；变化动力；表达力；专门化

國際替代計量

A MOTIVATION FOR THE REPLACEMENT OF CHINESE FUNCTION WORDS

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