体用同形与词类活用说

Development of the Double-function Words

先秦汉语名动同形有两类,一类以名词引申出动词,一类为动词引申出名词。由动词引申出名词的通常视为兼类词,由名词引申出动词的则有两种不同看待,一部分作兼类看,一部分看作名词活用为动词。而从本质来认识问题,名词引申出动词者,都属于体用引申范畴。只是由于后代词形的分化和使用上的分工,原来体用同形的词,有一些只剩下名词的用法,活用论者往往依据后代的用法,来律定先秦汉语的词性。

In the Pre-Qin period, there were two types of noun-verb word, i.e. the same word form with the function of both a noun and a verb. One was the verb derived from a noun (noun-verb), the other was the noun derived from a verb (verb-noun). The verb-noun is usually referred to as a double-function word. With regard to the noun-verb, we had two subtypes: one called the double-function word, one known as the noun-based verb. Essentially, the noun-verbs belonged to the pragmatic category. Some of them evolved into nouns later owing to the change in word form and use. As for the noun-based verbs, determination of their part of speech as used in the Pre-Qin period was often made according their usage in the later generations.