俗语词“破鞋”考辨

A Textual Research into the Colloquial Word“Po Xie”(Broken Shoe)

双音词"破鞋"最早见于唐初,意思为"破旧的鞋子",是个中性书面语词,词义指向"鞋",构词语素"鞋"是词义重心,是实指;构词语素"破"是修饰成分,取"旧、坏"之义。明末时,"破鞋"有了"私娼"、"作风不正的妇女"等意思,是个俗语词,词义指向"破",构词语素"破"是词义重心,取"不完整"之义;构词语素"鞋"并不是实指"鞋子",而是虚指,各方言区可以用其他构词语素来替换它,比如"屁股""货""大碗"等,词义都相同或相近。由此可见,"破鞋"是语言使用者根据不同的理据在不同时间、为不同对象造的同形词。弄清"破鞋"的词义及其理据,这对汉语词汇史、词典编纂都有一定价值。

The Chinese word ＂po xie＂ （broken shoe） first appeared in the beginning of Tang Dynasty, and it was neutral. Its meaning was around ＂shoes＂. And the morpheme ＂xie＂ is the root, and has lexical meaning. And the morpheme ＂po＂ is a modifier, meaning ＂old＂ or ＂broken＂. In late Ming Dynasty, the word got the meanings like ＂prostitute＂, ＂loose woman＂ and was colloquial. The center of the word was ＂po＂ meaning ＂incomplete＂. The morpheme ＂xie＂ did not refer to ＂shoe＂, but was empty. In some dialects, it can be replaced by ＂pigu＂ （ass）, ＂huo＂ （thing） or ＂dawan＂ （big bowl）. Their meanings are almost identical. Therefore, the word ＂po xie＂ is a homograph of ＂broken shoe＂ invented by language users according to different motivations for different objects in different times. It is of some value for the compilation of dictionaries and understanding clearly the lexicological history to know the meanings and motivations of the word.