副词“至少”的来源及其发展

The Origin and Evolution of Adverb Zhi Shao in Chinese

"至少"最初是状中短语,至迟在明代已经词汇化为副词。由于句法位置改变、主观性增强、韵律制约和使用频率较高等因素共同作用,状中结构短语"至少"被重新分析为副词。副词"至少"后接成分主要是VP,也可以是NP;VP/NP主要是表示数量的成分,也可以是表示非数量的成分。

Zhi Shao was an endocentric adverb phrase in the beginning. It was lexicalized and became an adverb no later than Ming dynasty. The motivations why Zhi Shao became an adverb include syntactic position, strong subjectivity, rhythm restriction and the high frequency of use. The adverb Zhi Shao is mostly followed by VP, but can also be followed by NP. VP/NP are mainly quantitative phrase, but can be non-quantitative as well.