表现物体大小的语法形式的不对称性——“小称”的来源、形式和功能

Asymmetry of Grammatical Devices for the Size of Objects

人类语言表达物体大小的语法形式是不对称的,大都有“小称”的语法标记,而缺乏相应的“大称”的语法手段。同时,不同的语言或者同一语言内不同方言的“小称”的来源、语音形式和语法功能具有高度的一致性。本文通过对汉语的分析,尝试解释造成“小称”的语法表达不对称性的认知基础,并从类型学的角度探讨汉语小称标记的历史来源、语音形式和功能扩展的机制和规律。

There is cross-linguistically an asymmetry between diminutives and augmentatives, two grammatical devices expressing the sizes of objects. Many languages have a diminutive but lack its related category ‘augmentative’. The diminutives of different languages and the different dialects of the same language share the same origins, phonological forms, and grammatical functions. By focusing on the phenomena in Chinese, the present analysis tries to explore the cognitive foundations for the asymmetry between diminutive and augmentative, and to identify the mechanism and regularity of the origins, phonological forms, and extension of functions of the diminutive in Chinese from the angle of linguistic typology.