从《齐民要术》看名词后缀“子”成熟的时代

An Analysis of the Establishment of the Chinese Noun Suffix“zi”from“Qi Min Yao Shu”

汉语名词后缀"子"是由实词逐渐虚化演变而来,这一发展演变过程大致在中古汉语阶段已经完成。中古汉语时期带"子"语素的合成词的数量较上古汉语时期激增,使用也较普遍,《齐民要术》中带"子"语素的合成词有30个,中古汉语其他文献中也有37个不同于《齐民要术》的这样的合成词。这些词都可以表示人物称谓名、动植物名、器物名以及经过加工的其他事物的名称,是典型的名词。语素"子"在这些合成词中都丧失了实在的词汇意义,或者成为一个凑足音节的羡余语素,或者成为一个改变词根语法功能的虚语素。这些事实都表明,"子"附加在其他实语素后形成一个名词性的派生式合成词的用法,在此时期已经发展成熟,这种合成词后的"子"在中古汉语时期已经是一个典型的名词后缀。

The Chinese noun suffix＂zi＂evolved from the content word,and the evolution got completed at the Middle Chinese period. During that period,there was a dramatic increase of compound words with the morpheme of＂zi＂that were generally used than in the Ancient Chinese period. There are thirty compound words with the morpheme of＂zi＂in＂Qi Min Yao Shu＂,and there are also another thirty-seven compound words in other literatures during the Middle Chinese period,which are different from those in＂Qi Min Yao Shu＂. These words are typically nouns indicating the character appellation,animal and plant names,utensil names and names of other processed objects. In these compound words,＂zi＂lost its real meaning as a word,and became a redundancy morpheme which only functioned as a syllable,or a virtual morpheme which changed the grammar function of the root morpheme. Therefore,the use of＂zi＂to other morphemes to form a derived compound word took hold during this period when＂zi＂became a typical noun suffix in these compound words.