论汉语中的“有向名词”——从“天敌”一词的误用说起

A brief discussion of directional nouns in Chinese language

“向”是存在于汉语名词中一个较为隐蔽的次范畴,其涵义为“指向领有者的方向”。据此可以把汉语中表示人或其他生物的名词划分为“有向名词”与“无向名词”两类。有向名词是名词中的一个小类,其主要语法特点是,当这类名词出现在“是”字句中宾语的位置上的时候,对领属性定语表现出极强的依赖性。本文中讨论的“天敌”与“对头”两类词即属“有向名词”。但是二者又互相区别,前者为“单向名词”,后者为“互向名词”。

Direction” is a concealed category of nouns in Chinese language, which means the direction of the director. This provides the foundation for classifying nouns indicating people and other beings into directed nouns' and undirected nouns'. Directional nouns are a small part of the nouns, which have such a feature: when they are used as objects in the sentences with 'be', they have a strong tendency of relying on the leading attributes. This paper points out that nouns like natural enemy' and opponents' belong to the category of directional nouns. However, there is a difference between the two, with the former being ‘one-way directional noun’, the latter being ‘two-way directional noun’.