运用命题产生法探寻东巴文的性质

Explore Properties of Dongba Character with Method of Proposition Production

学术界对于东巴文的性质众说纷纭,有象形文字、图画文字、语段文字等多种观点,但大多缺乏实证研究。运用命题产生法,先让东巴将东巴经文翻译为汉语,然后计数不同东巴的译文之字数和命题数,再与标准译文加以比较。结果表明,东巴的译文无论是字数还是命题数,都与标准译文有显著差异,说明东巴文并非是一字一意的意音文字,它在性质上接近于图画文字,在文句组织上属于语段文字。东巴文在表意上还具有相当程度的不确定性,正处在由图画文字向形意文字过渡的阶段。由于东巴文的这一特点,使得东巴对于东巴经的解读和翻译具有看图说话的性质。

There are different academic opinions on properties of Dongba character, such as pictograph, hieroglyph and syntagm words, but many of which lack of empirical study.Through the method of proposition production, Dongba characters were translated into Chinese first and then the numbers of word and propositions were counted for comparing with the standard translation. The results showed that there were significant differences between Dongba＇ translations and standard translation, no matter in the number of words or the number of propositions. This means that Dongba character is not ideo-phonograph, but is more similar to picture words and belongs to syntagm words in sentences organization. Dongba character, has considerable uncertainty in the expression, is in the period of transition from picture word to ideograph. This special feature provides the properties of picture talk in the interpretation and translation of Dongba scriptures.