臺灣閩南話語氣助詞「呢」的來源和演變

為探討目前主要分布於臺灣南部的語氣詞「呢nih^8」的身世，本文追溯明清閩南戲文的句尾詞「年」以及日治時期臺灣語學文獻《語苑》的句尾詞「呢」，並進而以臺南地區為樣本，從事實際的田野調查。在共時描寫方面，本文主張「呢」並不專表某一特定語氣，故能出現於任何句式，語帶誇張或強調。「呢」具有提醒聽者注意信息焦點的作用，可能與其語源是表「如此，這樣」義的指示詞「爾」有關。在歷時觀察的部分，本文對比古今三個不同時段的紀錄與調查結果，發現「呢」約莫在一個世紀前因為另一個語氣詞「咧」的興起，轉而多用於疑問句。及至今日，「咧」非但用於陳述句、祈使句，還跨足至特指問句；「呢nih^8」的音讀則主要保留在是非問的句型裡，並且常用以反詰，語氣嗆辣，多為負面表述。

關鍵字

閩南語；呢；咧；句尾語氣助詞；指示

並列摘要

In hopes of tracking down the origin of ＂nih8,＂ an utterance particle commonly employed in Southern Taiwan, this article scrutinizes the usage of clause-final ＂ni5＂ as attested in the Ming-Qing Southern Min playscripts, the usage of clause-final ＂nih8＂ as attested in the Yuyuan, a linguistic magazine published in Taiwan under Japanese rule, and the usage of clause-final ＂nih8＂ as reflected in the fieldwork data elicited from native Southern Min speakers in Tainan. Synchronically, ＂nih8＂ is nothing like a clause-type, but rather occurs in all types of clauses, creating an effect of exaggeration or emphasis; this focus marking function of ＂nih8＂ is arguably inherited from its demonstrative ancestor ＂er,＂ roughly translatable as＂like this.＂ Diachronically, about a century ago, the rise of the utterance particle ＂leh4＂ left in its wake the gradual confinement of ＂nih8＂ to interrogative clauses; nowadays, in addition to marking indicatives and imperatives, ＂leh4＂ extends to marking wh-questions, while ＂nih8＂ is primarily restricted to yes-no questions, especially to rhetorical questions intended to make negative assertions provocatively.

並列關鍵字

the Southern Min dialect ； nih^8(呢) ； leh^4(咧) ； clause-final utterance particle ； demonstrative

參考文獻

Heine, Bernd. 2002. On the role of context in grammaticalization. In Ilse Wischer and Gabriele Diewald (eds.), New Reflctions on Grammaticalization, 83-101. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Google Scholar

Hopper, Paul J. 1991. On some principles of grammaticization. In Elizabeth Closs Traugott and Bernd Heine (eds.), Approaches to Grammaticalization (Vol. I.), 17-36. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.