试论变文中的词尾“即”

"Ji"——A Special Suffix in The Dunhuang Bian Wen

敦煌变文中,“即”有一种特殊的用法,它常常附着于虚词之后,凑足双音节,不再具有词汇意义,其特点跟词尾“自”和“复”大略相同。这种“即”字在变文中共7型(附着于7个不同的词后)134例。为便于分析,先将其分别例举于下: 遂即,61例。(1) 《伍子胥变文》:“龙蛇塞路,拔剑(汤皿)前;虎狼当道,遂即张弦。”(2) 同上:“子胥蒙他教示,遂即拜谢渔人。”

Adhering to some function words (mainly behind adverbial words), 'Ji' (即) has a special usage in the Dunhnang Bian Wen. It gives service to forming a disyllabic word, while losing its original meaning. This is similar to the other two suffixes, ' Zi' (自) and 'Fu'(复), which have been widely used since the Later Han Dynasty (25—220)and the wei Dynasty (220—265). Counting up a vast amount of linguistic illustrations, the author holds that 'Ji' (即) should be a suffix. Bian Wen is a popular form of narrative literature flourishing in the Tang Dynasty (618—907), with alternate prose and rhyemed parts for vecitation and singing. Its sentence pattern, affected by the rhythemical prose style, is often constituted of four characters and six characters. In most cases, 'Ji'(即)is placed in these structures, just used to compiete a phonemic structure and indicate moods. The usage of the suffix 'Ii' (即) is a exceptional phenomenon only in the Dunhuang Bian Wen. Though it is evolved from colloquialism, like 'Zi' (自) and 'Fu'(复), because it only served the nonliterate classes, its frequence range in spoken language is slightly wider than 'Zi' (自) and 'Fu' (复).