“手气”与“脚气”同构异义成因浅析

On the Causes of Structural Identity and Semantic Difference between “Shouqi” and “Jiaoqi”

摘要: 在现代汉语中，“手气”与“脚气”同属偏正结构复合词，共享语素“气”，但语义表达与使用场景却有很大差异。本文通过对“气”进行语义溯源，梳理其从本义到引申义、隐喻义的演变脉络；再结合认知语言学概念隐喻理论、语素组合与语境文化，分析“手气”与“脚气”二者的语义演变轨迹。我们认为隐喻机制为二者产生新义提供了条件，而疾病流行程度、肢体功能对应的文化观念是词义分化的深层驱动因素，使用频率差异是词义竞争结果的外在确证，最终促成“脚气”保留旧义用法，“手气”的新义被普遍接受，形成同构异义现象。

Abstract: In modern Chinese, “shouqi” (luck in games of chance) and “jiaoqi” (athlete’s foot) are both compound words of attributive-head structure, sharing the morpheme “qi”, yet they differ greatly in semantic meaning and usage contexts. This paper conducts a semantic etymological exploration of “qi” and sorts out its evolutionary trajectory from the original meaning to extended and metaphorical senses. Combined with conceptual metaphor theory in cognitive linguistics, morpheme combination rules and contextual cultural factors, it analyzes the semantic evolution paths of “shouqi” and “jiaoqi”. This study holds that the metaphor mechanism provides the cognitive prerequisite for the generation of their new meanings. The prevalence of diseases and cultural concepts of limb functions are the deep‑seated driving forces of semantic differentiation, while the difference in usage frequency serves as external evidence of lexical competition. Consequently, “jiaoqi” retains its original sense, while the new meaning of “shouqi” gains general acceptance, ultimately resulting in the phenomenon of identical structure but divergent meanings.