论汉语“见”的语法化现象

On the Grammaticalization of Jian in Chinese

摘要: Croft(1990)[1]指出语法化中伴随着一种“去语义化”(desemanticization)现象，即某一语言形式在进行语法化的同时，其语义会虚化甚至消失(loss of meaning)。例如英语的“be going to”1原本是具有实在的语义(即“某人正在去某地”)，但进行语法化后语义变虚，已不再表达动作“去”，取而代之的是语法意义，在句子中作为将来式标记。然而，光谈“语义虚化”，未免略嫌空泛。如何观察语义的演变？又如何可以客观地描述呢？本文以汉语“见”的三个语法化路径为例，采用“语义分析法”以观察一个语言形式的语义是如何演变和“虚化”。本文提出四项论点：1) “见”在先秦时期进行语法化而演变成被动标记；2) “见”亦于唐初时期透过第二次语法化而成为结果补语；3) 现代汉语中“见”开始进行第三次语法化：由动词虚化成连接从属关系的连词(subordinative conjunction)；4) 以“见”的三次语法化为例，论述“语义分析法”如何有助我们对语法化过程有更进一步的了解。

Abstract: Croft (1990) argues that desemanticization, in which a linguistic element losses its lexical meaning, is an associate phenomenon of grammaticalization. For example, the expression “be going to” in English was once having a concrete lexical meaning (that somebody is travelling to somewhere). After undergoing the process of grammaticalization, it lost the lexical meaning “to go” and acquired a grammatical meaning (i.e.: a future-tense marker). However, the argument of “losses of meaning” is quite vague. How can we observe the changes of meaning? How can we describe the changes of meaning in an objective manner? This article, through studying the grammaticalization of Jian in Chinese, intends to apply “semantic analysis” to observe how the meanings of a linguistic forms change. There are four arguments proposed by this article: 1) Jian was grammaticalized into a passive marker in pre-Qin; 2) Jian was grammaticalized into a resultative complement in Tang; 3) Jian is undergoing the third grammaticalization path and acquiring the function of a subordinative conjunction; 4) Through studying the three grammaticalization paths of Jian, we argue that “semantic analysis” can help us to understand more about grammaticalization.