“自然”和“当然”的副、连之辨

Study of Word Categories of "自然" and "当然"

"自然"和"当然"是现代汉语中的一对近义虚词,都表达"确认""肯定"的态度和语气,二者都可以位于后续句句首,连接前后两个小句。前人对于位于后续句句首的"自然"和"当然"词类归属看法不一,多数人认为此用法的"自然"是连词,"当然"是副词。本文从句法语义功能和虚化机制两个角度探究前人词类判定意见不统一的原因,并对词性分析做出思考,"自然"和"当然"都具有副词的衔接功能,还不具有连词的连接功能,随着推理机制的作用,"自然"和"当然"可以进一步向连词虚化。

＂自然＂ and ＂当然＂ is a pair of synonym in modern Chinese, both of whom express ＂ confirm＂ ＂ certainly＂ , and both can be located between two clauses, but most people think that ＂自然＂ of this usage is a conjunction, while ＂当然＂ is an adverb.From syntax and semantic and inference, this paper studies the reason why people think the word categories of these two words are different. ＂自然＂ and ＂当然＂ both have adverbial cohesive function, while they do not have connection function of conjunctions, and as the role of the reasoning mechanism, the ＂自然＂ and ＂当然＂ can transform to conjunctions.