反诘疑问代词“那”的形成问题

The Formation of the Interrogative Pronoun na in Rhetorical Questions

询问事理与反诘,并且主要用于反诘的“那(哪)”出现于东汉时期。已有不少学者对这个疑问词作过有益探索,但它的来源问题至今尚无一致或可为定论的意见。文章从学史的角度对相关的主要观点加以梳理,进而分析诘问词“那”的形成问题,认为“那”形成于“奈何”的省缩音变,这不但有“奈(X)何”的“奈”可作“那”的证据,也有差不多同时期或前后同一系疑问词及其他疑问词发生的同类型变化的有力支持。“那”由“奈何”省缩音变形成后,所进入的主流句式应该是自上古汉语以来的“何得/可/能+VP”疑问句式。

The emergence of the pronoun na, mainly employed in rhetorical questions and also used for inquiring facts,can be traced back to the East-Han period. Many positive contributions have been made to account for the pronoun, yet the nature of its origin still evokes much controversy. From a historical point of view, this essay clears up the major related issues and analyzes the formation of na, leading to the conclusion that the phonetic blending of naihe gave birth to na,which can be backed up by the parallel developments of etymological relative pronouns around the same period. After its emergence,na was applied to the mainstream sentence pattern of interrogative structure hede/ke/neng ＋VP from upper ancient Chinese.