上古文献中“使”字用法考察

The Study of the Usage of “shi” Word in Ancient literature

"使"有两种用法:一是表动词的"役使",是常语;二是表"致使",为连词,分别相当于英语的"enslave"和"cause"。古代文献中表"役使"和表"致使"的"使"都是动词。汉语中词和句法结构不是一一对应的,这两个不同的意思是由语境赋予的:如果前面是人,施事性比较强,表示主观情况,则表示"役使";如果前面是一种客观情况,是一种行为导致另一种行为发生,则表示"致使"。表"役使"既可以表示动作实现,也可以表示动作没有实现,而表"致使"则表示动作一定实现了。

MA Jian-zhong thinks that ＂shi＂ has two usages as a verb. the first one is y^sm language, which means ＂enslave＂ , and the second one is ＂zhishi＂, a conjunction, which means ＂cause＂. In my opinion, ＂shi＂ in these two words are verbs in the ancient literatures, however, in Chinese, the word and the syntactic structure are not always corresponding, and the meaning of the word is always given by the con- text. If a person is mentioned above, this means his illocutionary is strong and he is in the subjective situation. If a kind of object is mentioned above, it means one kind of behavior caused another, which can be called ＂yishi＂. Whether the behavior is achieved or not, we can use the word ＂yishi＂, but we must use the word＂zhishi＂ when the action must be achieved.