历史语用学视角下的语义演变机制——以拟声词“呵呵”的语义嬗变为例

Semantic Change in a Historical Pragmatic Perspective:The Case of the Onomatopoeic hēhe

原本用于模拟笑声的拟声词"呵呵"在交际过程中发展出了一系列复杂的新用法:可以充当拟声词、话语标记,甚至做动词用。从历史语用学的角度来看,"呵呵"的语义嬗变既是从发声行为到言外行为的转变,也是从特定会话隐涵到规约隐涵的转变。新的语义的获得也导致了该词句法功能的变化,使其获得了动词性的新用法。

This paper explores the semantic change of hehe, an onomatopoeic, interjection-like word for laughter in Chinese, based on data from both oral language and language used on the internet, hehe has been found to have various usages： as an interjection word, a discourse marker, or an adverb. In a historical prag- matic perspective, the semantic change of hehe represents both the change from locutionary act to illocutionary act, and the change from particularized conversational implicature to conventional implicature. The semanticization of the pragmatic inferences associated with a particular situation or use gives hehe new semantic content, and consequently,leads to change in its syntactic functions.