动词“关乎”的来源和发展

The Origin and Development of the Verb Guanhu

“关”在产生时是名词义“门闩”,在使用中意义演变为动词义“关涉”;“乎”在产生时表示“呼气貌”,在使用中演变为介词“于”的假借字。“关”和“乎”自战国开始连用,后接动词性或名词性成分。唐宋时期连用频率增加,后接名词性成分组合为动宾短语。随着清代“关乎着”的出现,“关”和“乎”受到成分组合条件、汉语双音化趋势和韵律制约以及使用频率增加等因素影响,伴随着“乎”的语法化,“关乎”最终词汇化为动词,沿用至今。

Guan is originally used as a noun meaning“latch”,which has been changed into a verb in use meaning“to concern”.Hu originally means“breathing”and is later used as the borrowed character of the preposition yu.Guan and hu have been used together since the Warring States period,followed by a VP or NP.In the Tang and Song Dynasties they are more frequently used together,followed by an NP to form a verb-object phrase.With the emergence of guanhu zhe in the Qing Dynasty,guan and hu are influenced by the conditions for the combination of components,the trend of being disyllabic of Chinese,the restriction of prosody,and the increasing frequency of use.With the grammaticalization of hu,guanhu is eventually lexicalized as a verb.