THE SEMANTIC AND SYNTACTIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN 至于 AND 至於 IN WARRING STATES PERIOD TEXTS

戰國文獻裡出現的‘至于’、‘至於’的語意上、語法上的差異

張廷任(Jung-Im Chang)

《Journal of Chinese Linguistics》 45卷1期 (2017/01) Pp. 145-192

摘要

This paper supports and extends the results of previous studies, such as Pulleyblank (1986) and Chang (2012), that argue that the choice of 于 or 於 in Classical Chinese is not random, but rather is conditioned by the features of the preceding verb. Through a close examination of the co-occurrence of 于 and 於 with the high-frequency verb 至 in six Warring States period texts, it is shown that additional semantic and syntactic factors influence the choice between the two. Semantically speaking, while both 至于 and 至於 occur followed by a noun indicating a place, a time, or a person-all of which can be described as [+concrete] goals-it is only 至於 that occurs followed by a degree, result, or extent, which can be described as [-concrete] goals. The [-concrete] goals that appear as objects of 至於 include a near demonstrative pronoun 此, a noun (including an abstract noun) or noun phrase, a verb phrase, and even a sentence. Syntactically speaking, only ＂至於+ Noun＂ appears in nominalized contexts in complex syntactic structures, such as before a nominalizer 者, before or after a relativizer 所, and as a head noun after a possessive/attributive marker 之. These findings provide additional support for the claim that 于 and 於 represent distinct lexical items, with distinct semantic feature sets, in Classical Chinese.

關鍵字

至于 ； 至於 ； 于 ； 於 ； Warring States period texts

並列摘要

本文經過調查戰國文獻裡出現的‘至于＇和‘至於＇，的例子來證明它們肯定有語意上、語法上的差異。在語意上，只有‘至於＇後邊出現表示程度或者結果的成分。表示程度或者結果的成分包括近指代詞‘此＇，名詞句（包括抽象名詞），動詞句，甚至連主謂結構都可以出現在‘至於＇的後邊表示“達到這樣的程度或者結果。”在語法上，只有‘至於＇在複雜的語法結構裡出現。“複雜的語法結構”就是說含有名詞化標記‘者＇、‘所＇、‘之＇等的句子。以前，作者曾經主張過‘于＇或‘於＇的選擇常常跟前邊的動詞的性質來決定。本文強調‘于＇或‘於＇的選擇不但跟前邊的動詞的性質有關，而且跟後邊的名詞的性質和‘于＇或‘於＇出現的句子的語法結構有關。

並列關鍵字

至于 ； 至於 ； 于 ； 於 ； 戰國文獻