不能“以今律古”,也不要“以古限今”——谈古语词在现代汉语中的理解和运用

Neither dogmatic nor synchronic bias in reinterpretations of the archaisms in modern Chinese

目前语言的理解和使用中,“以今律古”或“以古限今”的现象同时存在,混淆了语言的古义(或语源义)与今义,都违背了语言历史发展规则。语言是在历史上发生、发展的,对语言现象,特别是语义(词义)的认识,要注意到两个方面:阅读和注释古代文献应因古文以求古义,切不可“以今律古”;在现代语言的使用上也不能“以古限今”。尤其是对现代汉语词义的理解,要更多地关注语言事实。

In the current reinterpretations of archaisms in modern Chinese coexist the dogmatically etymological biased dominance and synchronic biased tendencies, both of which violate the historical evolution of languages. Language is known as a historical continuum, so the precise meaning of either classic archaisms or present new coinages cannot be obtained via the synchronic approach without considering the contexts,