Journal of Chinese Linguistics Vol.11 – 1983

Volume 11, No 1

Article 文章

Abstract 摘要
An attempt is made to establish in some principled way the direction of linguistic developments in the East Asian continent, based on the basic lexical items of the Chinese language related to eating and drinking, ‘cooking vessels’, ‘(cooked) dishes’ and the verb ‘to drink’. In order to determine the developmental direction, a) some historical evolutions of the shape and function of cooking vessels and b) regional expansions/reductions of the semantic contents of the verb ‘to drink’ were examined, in addition to the chronological order of these vessels’ transformations and the semantic changes of the verb ‘to drink’ established with the archaeological and philological evidence. The direction and order of the developments were then double-checked with the synchronic distributional patterns of modern Chinese dialectal vocabulary corresponding to these vessel names and various diachronic variants for ‘(cooked) dishes’ and ‘to drink’. Despite the successive occurrences, in the historical documents, of the diachronic variants of these words primarily in the order of the synchronic distribution from the southeastern to the northwestern corner of the continent, it is argued that this order does not necessarily reflect the actual order in which these words came into being in the regional variants of the Chinese language, and some philological evidence for that argument is presented. The order we established reflects the mere appearance order of these diachronic forms in the written history, while the actual words themselves had mostly come into being in the earliest period of the Chinese language. In other words, what is normally described as a linear, longitudinal development along the time axis in the history of the Chinese language often turns out, upon close examination, to be a horizontal or at least diagonal tracing of synchronic distribution of various linguistic phenomena completed in an early stage of the historical period of the language. Here lies, we believe, part of the reason for the beautiful correlations between the longitudinal and latitudinal occurrences of lexical items discussed in his study. The direction we established here by examining the Chinese lexical items related to eating and drinking is supported by the distributional pattern of river names in the East Asian continent examined by geographers.

根据一些有关饮食的汉语基本词汇的历史变体(如鼎,镬,锅等)和跟它们相对应的地区变体(如闽语鼎,粤客语镬,北方话锅等)的分布。我们能确定在东亚大陆里语言发展的总方向。“河”和“江”在东亚大陆(包括朝鲜半岛)里的分布也反映着同样的发展方向。我们的讨论不只利用历史和方言的知识,还跟据炊具之形态变迁和各个词意的历史上扩大和缩小。这样确定的语言发展的方向其实不一定反映着有关各词的产生次序。查看历史资料就知道有些词虽然文献里出现是相当新的,不过它们的原形已能发现在汉语最古的词汇里。我们相信普通所谓词汇的历史发展不一定都是“纵”的发展;虽然不能说是完全“横”的描写,至少是“斜”的描写。这就是历史变体基本上对应地区变体(如最古的鼎和闽语鼎,中古的镬和粤客语镬,最新的锅和北方话锅等)的原因之一。语言的发展好象基本上在古代完成。所谓历史上的变化很多反映着各地变体出现在历史文献里的次序。汉语也不是其例外。

Abstract 摘要
Recent studies have shown that interpretation of sentences can be largely obtained from surface structures. In Chinese, it has been proposed (by S. F. Huang 1981) that a principle involving the surface left-to-right order of constituents governs the scope facts concerning quantifiers and other logical elements. This paper argues that such a principle lacks generality and is both unnecessary and insufficient. The facts that fall under the linear principle are shown to fall under an independently motivated hierarchical principle involving “c-command”, which is further shown to be of greater generality than the former. Further, the paper argues that the relevant level of scope representation is not SS, but more precisely LF. The evidence adduced to support this claim also demonstrates the existence of certain abstract mapping rules operating between SS and LF.

语法中的范距现象近来有不少学者讨论。随着语法理论的最新发展,一般均同意句子的语意内容,绝大部分已直接表现于表层结构之中。黄宣范教授 (1981) 最近主张中文数量词的相互范距完全可由数量词在表层结构中的前后位置来决定。本文指出此项仅涉及词序的规则既不够周全,亦无必要;较为周全的规则应涉及词组结构中词组与词组的支配(C-Command)的关系。同时,本文列举四种证据,说明表层结构仍不能充分表示范距现象,而必须经过若干运作程序变成逻辑式 (Logical Form) 之后,才能将所有现象表示出来。

 

 

Abstract 摘要
The great majority of Singaporean Chinese have a southern Chinese dialect background. Mandarin is an acquired language, but a language of daily use. The Middle Chinese Ru-sheng exists partially and inconsistently in the Mandarin spoken in Singapore. Certain Middle Chinese Ru-sheng Zi appear more often than others in this ‘Fifth Tone’; the same Ru-sheng Zi may sometimes appear in this Fifth Tone and at other times in the correct tone in the speech of the same person. This Fifth Tone also has a falling pitch. While it often differs from Mandarin Tone 4 in being shorter or more tense in the whole syllable, it sometimes appears to be identical to Tone 4. Therefore, it cannot be consistently distinguished from Tone 4. M.C. Ru-sheng Zi syllables which have an -i or -e ending in Mandarin never appear in the Fifth Tone. In this study, 70.9% of the Ru-sheng Zi of Mandarin Tones 1, 2, and 3, ending with the nucleus, appeared in the Fifth Tone. The Hokkien group showed the highest frequency of such a tonal reading, 89.4%. Mandarin 1st Tone characters were most susceptible to this feature, 84.1%; and 3rd Tone characters were least affected, 22.8%. No correlations have been found between the frequencies of the Fifth Tone and certain historical categories as preserved in the Southern dialects. Influences of the Southern dialects is probably the source of the Fifth Tone.

大多数的新加坡人都会说一两种闽粤方言。华语是四种官方语言之一,也是日常生活中的用语。中古音与现代方言里的入声字不完整且不规则地存在于本地的华语里。这个第五声是一个下降调,有时带有一个喉塞音韵尾,有时则不带。因此它有时较华语里的第四声短促,有时则没有分别。在这个调查里有70.9%的方言入声字出现与此第五声。福建人有最大的倾向把方言入声字读作第五声,频率为89.4%。华语里第一声的入声字读作第五声的频率最高,有84.1%, 第三声的字频率最低,只有22.8% 。这个第五声可能是源自闽粤方言的影响。

Abstract 摘要
The present article postulates a bisegmental nature for the grade medials of late Hàn to Liáng Chinese, giving nine possible permutations, and attempts to interpret the proliferation of rhyming categories during the period in terms of allophonic variation of the peak vowels induced by these medial complexes. Only the unrounded peak vowels // and // are considered.

本文设定后汉至梁时代汉语等韵介音的双音段特性,列举了九个可能的变换方式。由于这些介母引起了主元音的同位变化,我们以此解释这一时期中韵类的繁衍现象。本文只讨论非园唇主元音// 和 //。

Report 报告

Corrigenda 斟误

中国语言学报10卷2期(1992)勘误
Project on Linguistic Analysis 语言学分析中心

 

Volume 11, No 2

Article 文章

Abstract 摘要
In my previous study I have contended that there is a universal natural order in the arrangement of linguistic elements in human communications systems, and that this order is governed by cogito-perceptive constraints proper to our species. My arguments are based on my observations in sign languages and oral languages (notably among children). This article is the report of an investigation into the temporal arrangement of the components of archaic Chinese ideograms between the 14th Century B.C. and the 2nd Century A.D., that is, from the oracle bone scripts (jiaguwen,hereafter abbreviated as JGW) to the seal characters (xiaozhuan). It will be shown that, despite the radical morphological modification that these ideograms underwent during this period, the temporal order in the components of both the oracle bone scripts and the seal characters remained subject to constraints of the kind observed in oral and sign languages.

近年来我在好几篇拙作中论证人类的语言讯息系统里存在着一个自然的,遍性的成分排列程序,而这个程序是决定于人类本身的感官认识制约。这个论据是基于我对手语和口语,特别是儿语的观察。本文是有关从公元前十四世纪(甲骨文)到公元二世纪初(小篆)的中国古文字结构时序研究的一个报告。从甲骨文到小篆,中国古文字形体虽然经历了一个重大的变化,可是这两种字体在结构时序上仍然受到上述那种制约的影响。

Abstract 摘要
This paper presents a uniform analysis of Mandarin de in all prenominal strings, including cleft and equational structures. It argues that the distinction between cleft and equational sentences is pragmatic, based on the assignment of given and new status to NPs in pre- and post-verbal position, and to the directness of the equation involved, and it refutes claims that the distinction is lexical, determined by differences in de and shì. It further argues that the NP modification marker de in prenominal strings is related to the adverbial modification marker de in terms of its phrase structure specifications, such that both mark modification of a head category at the X” level.

本文把所出现在名词性词串前的 “de” 作统一的分析。这些名词串包括裂开结构 (cleft) 和等式结构。作者证明裂开句和等式句的区别是与实际的语意有关,是由于动词前后名词信息的新旧地位和等式句的直接性而产生的。本文驳斥把这种区别认为词汇性是由 “de” 和 “shi” 来区分的主张。作者更进一步主张在名词词串前的 “de” 和副词的 “de” 是相关的,两者都是语法中标志对 X” 层主导范畴的修饰。

Abstract 摘要
By projecting tone values of modern Chinese dialects spoken in the so-called Central Plains, we became aware that the tonal features projected there reflect a much longer history of the Chinese language than the segmental features do. For instance, the outermost waves could be related to the tone values reconstituted for Tang Chinese around the 9th or 10th century AD, and the second waves to the system reflected in the major source of information on Old Mandarin phonology around the 14th century, while none of this kind survives in the segmental part of modern northern Chinese phonology. Because of the seeming susceptibility to change of syllabic intonations (which suggests less trace of older features than in the case of segments), involvement of Altaic speaakers in the development of northern Chinese can be an explanation for this extraordinary phenomenon.

在现代汉语方言里声调比普通的元音和辅音有更多的区域变体。例如北京方言和天津方言的元音和辅音没什么很显著的不同语音特征。不过虽然北京阴平声比阳平高,天津阴平声却比阳平声低。这种现象给予我们一个印象,就是声调比元音和辅音更容易变。事实应该是相反的。因为声调比较难变。所以比元音和辅音有更多的区域变体。以中原地区为中心的汉语北方方言的声调调值非常丰富而且有多样性,但有一定的区域分布模式,构成至少三种(或四种)的“方言波”。这些方言波基本上和唐代(9~10世纪),元代(14世纪)和现代的三种时代变体一致。构成最外边的方言波(第一波)的声调相当于唐代北方方言的声调,构成中间的第二波的相当于元代汉语的声调,而最里边的第三波相当于现代北京方言的声调。声调基本上是各个音节的音高变化。它发音上不可能有象发出元音和辅音时那样的生理学上的限制。那么在中原地区元音和辅音为什么比声调更容易变化?从西周时代以来,说汉语北方方言的人事实上包括很多北方少数民族,它们大多数是阿尔泰族。我们相信这些阿尔泰族接受汉语时,拿自己民族语的元音和辅音来代替汉语的元音和辅音,但接受声调时应该很少有这样的语音代替。那么从汉语的历史变迁的立场来说,也可以解释声调是保守的,比元音和辅音更有抵抗变化的趋势。

Abstract 摘要
The problem of sound change remains an unresolved controversy in linguistics. Two conflicting views of sound change oppose one another with the neogrammarians on the one hand confronting the lexical diffusionists on the other. The lexical diffusion theory of sound change receives support from the following paper which looks closely at two sound changes in progress in Hong Kong Cantonese and reports findings from a study which indicates lexical diffusion as the means of implementation for these two sound changes. This introduction, however, first identifies what the lexical diffusionists regard as errors in the neogrammarian conception of sound change and then examines some of the criticisms which have been made against lexical diffusion.

本论文结合了有关音变的词汇扩散理论和社会语言学的研究方法,从语音性,词汇性和社会性这三个方面,对香港粤语里的两个音的音变过程进行了微观共时的研究。

Report 报告

报告:第四次中国语言学研究座谈会
Chin-fa Lien 连金发; David Chamberlain

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