联绵词与单字词音近义同现象的思考

On Disyllabic Roots and One-character Free Morpheme Sharing Similar Sounds and Identical Meaning

联绵词与单音节词有音近义同的现象,如“窟隆”和“孔”,“葫芦”和“瓠”,“辗转”和“展”。这是语言现象,但不能排除文字现象的可能性,即单个书写形式跟两个音节对应。上古文献中文字跟语言不对应的现象并不少见,这提示书面语以单字形式记录双音节词的可能性。除了联绵词单字形式的事实,一字的两读正好构成联绵词两个音节的奇特现象也暗示联绵词的单字记录形式,并透露出部分联绵词来源于复辅音声母的迹象。这对认识双音节词的演变以及早期汉字的性质,提出了新的思考。

A disyllabic root is defined as a free single-morpheme with two syllables that in turn are in two written forms represented by two Chinese characters. But documents show that some disyllabic roots are written as one single character without any change of meaning. Instances are “瓠”and“葫芦”, and “展”and“辗转”, in both of which the single-character forms and the two-character forms are of identical meaning. We take this as disyllabic roots sharing identical meaning with one-character free morphemes rather than, as some linguists believe, division of disyllabic roots into two single characters. This can be further indicated in that in some dialects there are some written forms that are of increased or reduced syllables without losing any meaning in their process of evolvement. Yet, unmatchability of spoken forms and their equivalent written forms do exist, as in early documents we can see that not all single-character represent only onesyllable. Even today, we can still find some examples of this kind. This indicates a great possibility that disyllabic roots are evolved because of slower pronunciation of the two syllables or of consonant cluster being presented by two written forms. Disyllabic roots such as“葫芦”、“昆仑”、“龃龉”、“角落”have also equivalent one-character forms to represent. Furthermore, some ancient books on Chinese sounds and rhythms have examples of one character with two sounds that in turn are the two sounds of their equivalent disyllabic roots. Thus a possible reference is that as for unmatchability in spoken forms and their written forms, it is manifest that some one-character forms can represent two-character disyllabic roots.