从汉语的“从”和日语的「から」看“经由义”的语义特征

How Cong and Kara Conceptualize “Route” Respectively in Chinese and Japanese

汉语的"从"和日语的「から」均可用来表示"经由义"和"起点义",以往研究在解释这种多义性时多从经由路径的"界线性"出发,尝试将所有经由路径均分析为主观识解的起点。而本研究在指出单纯用"界线性"来概括"经由义"的语义特征有很大弊端的基础上,尝试以"顺沿性""方式性""界线性"这三个语义特征为分析维度,从历时和共时两个层面对汉语的"从"和日语「から」的"经由义"进行了全面梳理,同时也为语言类型学研究提供了分析模型。研究结果显示:1)从历时上看,"从"和「から」均从词源"随行""顺应"直接衍生出了"经由义",它们在早期具备"顺沿性"和"方式性"这两个语义特征;2)日语的「から」曾一度从书面语中消失,而重新回归后的「から」失去了"顺延性"这个语义特征,这直接导致了现代汉语和日语中"从"和「から」在表"经由义"时的使用范围的差别;3)无论在汉语还是日语中,与"起点义"具有直接的语义联系的是"界线性"这个语义特征,而"顺延性"和"方式性"与"起点义"并无联系,因此我们无需将所有经由路径分析为主观识解的起点。

The Chinese preposition cong and the Japanese case marker kara, whose primary function is to mark the source of a motion event, can also often be used to designate a "route". While most previous studies have elucidated this kind of polysemy by trying to construe route as the boundary of two areas, this paper, after fully investigating the diachronic and synchronic data, argues that the semantic features of route should be analyzed from three aspects: whether the mover is going along the route, whether the route is regarded as a means to reach the goal, and whether the route can be analyzed as the boundary of two areas. This analysis model not only reveals the similarities and differences between the Chinese cong and Japanese kara, but also clarifies the semantic relationship between the source and the route. Moreover, it shows that this analysis model can be applied to the research of linguistic typology as well.