试论疑问代词“若为”、“若箇”的来源

A Tentative Explanation on the Sources of the Interrogative Pronouns ruoge(若箇) and ruowei(若为)

"若为"、"若箇"是先后出现于南北朝时期和唐代的疑问代词,对这两个疑问代词的来源以往罕有论及。文章基于语料的调查,在吕叔湘(1985)的基础上对相关问题进行分析,得出了与以往不同的结论。认为上古汉语里就有的指示词"若"可能来源于"像似"义动词"若"在特定语法关系中的变化;"若为"、"若箇"的"若"也与"像似"义动词"若"有关,但在历史变化中经历了"若何"(即受疑问词"何"影响)的阶段,从而获得了疑问功能,然后与"作为"义动词"为"、名量词"箇"复合,形成了"若为"、"若箇"。

The pronouns ruoge and ruowei, first came into being during the South-North-Dynasties period and the Tang period respectively, were seldom touched upon in previous studies. Based on Lu Shuxiang＇s discussion of relative questions, this paper argues that the deictic word ruo（若）, which can be found in Ancient Chinese language, probably germinated from the verb ruo signifying common characters or identical relationships in certain linguistic contexts~ similarly, ruo in ruoge and ruowei was related to the same verb ruo. However, ruo was influenced by the interrogative he in a crucial intermediate phase of the ruohe（若何） combination in its diachronieal change, hence acquired the interrogative function. Furthermore, ruo later integrated with wei, a verb denoting an action, and then with ge, a classifier for nouns, which accounts for the development of these two interrogative pronouns in question.