再说表谦敬语气的句首词“但”——对朱怀《“但”的语法功能演变及产生机制》一文的补充

Revisiting the sentence-initial modal particle dan(但)

表谦敬语气的句首词"但"主要用于行政文书、法制文书、书信文书中,体现下级对上级、被执法者对执法者、长辈对晚辈的谦虚和尊敬,这一用法最早出现在唐高宗龙朔二年(公元662年)的吐鲁番文书中,先是用在部落之前,然后用在专有人名前,后来又用于各类谦词之前,这个词的前身是"其",表谦敬语气的句首词"但"是对"其"的历时替换的结果。

The modal particle dan(但),which is firstly found in Turpan unearthed documents written in 662 A.D.,is mainly used in administrative documents,legal documents and letter documents.As the first word in a sentence,it reflects the humble attitude of the inferior to the superior.This paper also illustrates the similar usage of qi(其) and indicates that dan is the replacement of qi.