介词“关于”源自日语说

A Study of the Theory that the Preposition Guanyu Originated from Japanese

介词"关于"的来源问题,学界一直有争议。自源说观点认为介词"关于"是由古代汉语动介跨层结构"关+于"词汇化而来,本文考察了持自源说观点的学者所引古文例句,认定皆非介词"关于"的可靠例证。我们尽可能穷尽性考察语料后发现,真正的介词"关于"始见于20世纪初的报刊文献及翻译作品中。早期使用介词"关于"的作者几乎都有留日背景,"关于"当是汉语与日语间接接触的结果。我们认为,翻译者在翻译过程中有意保持日语作品原有的正式语体风格,但旧白话不能满足这一要求,故而移植仿造了介词"关于"。

Linguistically, the origin of preposition guanyu （关于） in Chinese has always been a controversial issue. Based on previous analyses and a further investigation into literature, this paper points out that the real preposition guanyu did not exist until 20th century. Most early users of guanyu had a background of studying in Japan, which suggested that the preposition guanyu should be the outcome of indirect language contact between Chinese and Japanese. We propose that early users of guanyu tried to maintain the formal stylistic style of Japanese works in their translation while the old Chinese colloquialism could not do the job and that it therefore led to the transplant and coining of the preposition guanyu.