韵律语法视域下汉语“词”的界定问题

On Defining ci(词) in Chinese: A Perspective from Prosodic Grammar

对汉语"词"的韵律语法特征进行探讨,发现"词"是一个跨层级韵律单位,它可能是一个或多个韵律词,也可能是一个黏附词,但最大只能是一个韵律短语;"词"不等于韵律词,它可以大于或小于韵律词(即可以容纳三个以上的音节,也可能只有一个音节);但如超过三个音节,则必须保证音步运作时,其中的任何一个音节都不会落单。据此,我们从韵律语法的角度对"词"作了界定,即"有描写内容,且韵律上可以独立的成分"或"无描写内容,且韵律上无法独立的成分(独立语段的情况除外)"。

This paper explores the prosodic grammatical features of words in Chinese and finds that Chinese words are crosshierarchical prosodic units, which may contain a single clitic word, one or more prosodic words or, to the maximum extent, a prosodic phrase. A word is not equivalent to a prosodic word, for it can be larger or smaller than the latter. Compared with a prosodic word, a word may contain only one syllable, or more than three ones. At the cases where a word con- tains three syllables, however, it must synchronize all those syllables when footing operates. Accordingly, we can define word from the prosodic grammatical perspective as follows： it can be ＂a content category that is phonologically independent＂ or ＂content-free category that is phonologically dependent （independent intonation group excluded）＂