京沪两地晚清、民国小报的语言文化现象

The Linguistic Cultural Phenomenon of the Tabloids in Beijing and Shanghai from the Late Qing to the Republic of China

在晚清现代白话的酝酿期,北京小报以“口语白话”、上海小报以“松动文言”作为各自的语言基础,参与其间。后虽受到“五四”欧化白话的影响,却始终沿着自己的“语言文化轨道”前行。两地小报逐渐减弱或变化口语和文言的成分,至20世纪40年代,北京小报完全融入现代白话之中,上海小报则形成文言、白话、上海方言混合的局面。究其原因,与两地小报的历史渊源,市民读者和小报文人的文化水准、文化立场,及所处语言环境的制约性有关。小报语言与北京市民的“吟味”品位,和上海市民的摩登时尚精神正相联系,对营造两地现代都市和市民生活方式的氛围都已尽历史责任。证明了“口语白话”、“松动文言”与“欧化白话”三者长期共存,互相参照,才是现代汉语实际的生成状态。

In the late Qing Dynasty, a modem vernacular is brewing. With different linguistic approaches, the tabloids in Beijing and Shanghai were involved in the transition. They insisted on their linguistic features despite the influence of westernized Chinese through the May Fourth Movement. Both of the Spoken and classical practices began to fade out. In the 1940s, the tabloids in Beijing used a pure vernacular Chinese, while classical Chinese, vemacular Chinese and Shanghai dialect mixed together in the tabloids of Shanghai. The division of the two should be attributed to the historical background, the cultural standards and positions of the reader and the author, and the general language circumstances. Beijing citizens are more traditional and Shanghai citizens are more modish; all the different tastes fit the tabloids languages, which had taken their historical responsibilities in fashioning the styles of the megalopolis. It proves that oral vernacular Chinese, informal classical Chinese and westernized modem Chinese had a long time to coexist and to influence each other. This is the real situation in which modem Chinese is made.