探討「龍」的多義表徵及文化意涵

動物與人在長久相處之下，自然會產生動物詞語，甚至會有動物隱喻的用法出現在日常生活中。人們對漢字「龍」的第一印象為何？在原型理論下，「龍」的原型又是如何被看待的？本研究以「龍」為主題，進行「龍」字多元詞義的探討及其文化意涵的探究。首先，從詞法的角度分析一般「龍」字詞語的多元詞義，並以《中文詞彙網絡》、《辭源修訂本》及教育部《重編國語辭典修訂本》作為三大語料來源，取得「龍」的14項詞義後，並據詞義繪製出一「龍」的詞義網絡圖，並透過「龍」的各種詞義義項分析詞義間產生的變化與發展。接著，以「龍」字成語作為分析重點，並據概念隱喻理論，細分「龍」字成語的來源域、目標域，觀察在不同映射範疇中，「龍」字成語內部隱喻與轉喻的機制。總的來看，在「龍」字的一般詞語與成語中，最具代表性的比喻義為「皇帝」義與「強者」義。另外，在語言相對論的理論的支持下，也可從詞義上了解人們對於事物的既定形象。因此本研究比較「龍」的外形特徵、典故習俗與多義詞的歷史來由，也對東西方「龍」進行跨文化比較。研究發現「東方龍」和「西方龍」雖然可在辭典中直接被翻譯，但在不同文化背景下，其各自所帶給人截然不同的形象與象徵意義。「東方龍」被視為吉祥神獸，反之，「西方龍」卻是邪惡妖魔。事實上，多義表徵與文化意涵的分析結果能相互呼應，例如：最經典的「皇帝」義在歷史文化中就有相關傳說能印證，像是黃帝召龍、秦始皇自稱為祖龍等。由此可知，語言因文化孕育而生，而文化也不能沒有語言的依附與承載。

關鍵字

龍；原型理論；多元詞義；概念隱喻理論；語言相對論

並列摘要

When people and animals get along for a long time, animal-based expressions will naturally appear, and even animals metaphors will appear in our daily lives. Under the prototype theory, how is the prototype of "dragon" viewed? With the theme of "Dragon", this research explored the multiple meanings of the word "Dragon" and its cultural connotation. First of all, we analyzed the multiple meanings of the common word "Dragon", and took “Chinese Word Network”, “Ciyuan” and “The Chinese Dictionary of the Ministry of Education” as major corpus sources. After analyzing the data, we made a lexical network diagram through the 14 mutiples meanings of “Lóng”. Also, we focused on the analysis of the idiom of “Lóng”, and the theory of conceptual metaphor. In general, among the general words and idioms of the word “Lóng”, the most representative metaphors are the meaning of “emperor” and “elite”. In addition, with the support of the theory of language relativity, we can separate dragon’s images into East and West. From the perspective of dragon’s biological appearance and historical significance, the study found that although “Oriental Dragon” and “Western Dragon” can be directly translated in dictionaries, but actually they are total different. “Oriental Dragon” is regarded as an auspicious beast, whereas “Western Dragon” is an evil demon.