原型理论视域下的汉英语义贬降

Meaning Degeneration in Chinese and English From the Perspective of Prototype Theory

在语言发展历史上,一部分词汇出现了语义贬降,甚至如"格雷欣效应"所述的"劣币驱逐良币",把最初的褒义或中性意义驱逐出语言的流通领域。文章通过汉英两语的例子分析这种复杂现象。从原型理论的视角来看,这种现象是原型语义和边缘语义历时互动的结果。

In the history of language development, there has been meaning degeneration in part of the vocabulary in every language, and as Gresham＇ s Law describes,＂ Bad money drives out good＂, i.e. ,the derogatory meaning of a word drives out its ameliorative meaning from current use. The complicated situations are mapped out in both Chinese and English in this paper. From the perspective of the prototype theory, the phenomenon is the result of the diachronic interaction between the prototype sense and the peripheral senses.