从音变构词到多音多义字——以“中”、“间”为例

From Derivations by Sound-change to Polyphonic and Polysemous Chinese Characters: A Case Study of "Middle" and "Space"

现代汉语多音多义字往往与古代汉语音变构词有关,"中"、"间"就是典型的个案。从共时角度看,它们属于多音多义字;以历时眼光看,它们是上古汉语音变构词的遗迹;从字形变化看,它们大致分为两类:一类以"中"为代表,原始词和滋生词字形基本没变,另一类以"间"为代表,原始词和滋生词字形变化较大。厘清这些多音多义字音义形的演变脉络,有助于现代汉字的规范化,也有益于语文辞书的编撰和修订。《现代汉语词典》、《新华字典》等中小型规范辞书可以根据共时语言事实标注多音多义字的读音、释义和字形,《辞源》、《汉语大词典》等大型专业辞书必须坚持音义契合的时代性原则标注多音多义字的读音、释义和字形。

The polyphonic and polysemous Chinese characters in modern Chinese mostly originated from the derivations by sound change in classical Chinese. Since B. Karlgren first focused his attention on the existence of large groups of cognate words in classical Chinese in his Word Families in Chinese （1934）, efforts have been made to find the semantic relationship that corresponds to the phonetic contrasts in the philological explanation for lexical meaning, grammatical function and morphology. Based on previous researches, this study selects Zhong （middle,＂中＂） and Jian （space,＂间＂） as two samples, and attempts to examine their derivational processes, to reveal their complicated relationship of sounds, meanings and the shapes of Chinese characters in the development of Chinese language, which can not only enrich the research in the polyphonic and polysemous Chinese characters in modern Chinese, but also contribute to the compilation and revision of Chinese dictionaries.