論「故」的虛化及其在閩方言中的表現

本文探尋語義發展的脈絡，判斷閩方言表「仍然」及「再次」這兩種用法的副詞來自古漢語「故」。「故」「固」因同音而有通假現象，如何穿透文字，看出語言真正的語義訊息？《禮記‧曲禮》「主人固辭」注曰「再辭曰固」，這是否表示「固」有「再次」之義？表「仍然」與表「再次」的副詞是否虛化自同一個來源？為解答這些問題，本文觀察具有平行演變關係的副詞「復」與「還」，由「復」「還」的啟示，我們可以釐清「故」「固」的糾葛，看到文字背後的語言真相。由於「復」「還」分別都兼有「仍然」與「再次」之義，可知「仍然」與「再次」之義可以虛化自同一個來源。根據漢語史來看，語義相近的語詞間往往有平行的虛化演變，而「復」「還」和「故」的具體詞彙意義相近，與「固」不同，可以推論和「復」「還」有平行虛化演變關係的恐怕是「故」而非「固」。

關鍵字

故；固；復；還；虛化；閩語

並列摘要

The paper explores the semantic developments of ”KU” 故in Min dialects, and argues that the adverbial usages of ”still” and ”once more” of ”KU” in Min dialects came from Old Chinese ”KU” 故which meant ”because” originally and got the meaning of ”once more” by homophonic borrowing and further semantic extension. It proposes also that there were a parallel development between the words ”FU” 復and ”HUAN” 還, which witnessed the same historical grammaticalization of ”still” and ”once more”. It is because words of the same category usually share the similar direction of grammaticalization that we are able to identify the word which initiated the change, in this case the ”KU” 故 is suggested, by mutual comparison.

並列關鍵字

KU ； KU ； FU ； HUAN ； grammaticalization ； Min dialects

參考文獻

Carstairs, Douglas(1873).Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, with the Principal Variations of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects.