也谈汉语的基本结构单位——评徐通锵先生的字本位理论

A Re-discussion on the Basic Unit of Chinese Structure——A Comment on Mr XU Tongqiang's Word-based Theory

“字本位”理论对汉语研究虽有非常有益的启示作用,但它的立论依据和推导过程是否完全符合汉语实际,能否解决汉语由于基本结构单位不易确定而带来的一系列麻烦却使人产生疑问。为了区分书写单位和结构单位,最好还是用两套术语来表示。作为语素的“字”在汉语里是现成的,而“词”则是从句法结构中分析出来的,因而“字”(语素)是备用单位,而“词”是使用单位,二者为实现的关系,“字”(语素)进入一定结构里才可以看出它能否成词,在不同结构中有可能形成几个不同的“词”。

The ＂word-based＂ theory is beneficial and instructive to Chinese study, but it is disputable whether its theoretical basis and hypothetical process adapt to the reality of the Chinese language and whether the theory can help get rid of a set of troubles caused by the difficulty in determining the basic unit of the Chinese language. For distinction between graphic and structural units, it is better to introduce two sets of terminology. The word as the mortheme is available in Chinese whereas the ＂expression＂ is only obtained through analysis of syntactic structure. Therefore, since the ＂word＂ （morpheme） is simply a unit in stock but the ＂expression＂ a unit in use, a ＂word＂（morpheme） is not necessarily a separate ＂expression＂ before it occurs in a certain structure. Moreover, a word may form different ＂expressions＂ in different structures.