汉语字词关系研究之检讨

A Re-examination of the Studies on the Relationships between Chinese Characters and Words

古人有"字"的概念,没有"词"的概念,如果要表达"词"的观念,往往也用"字"。"字"具有多种含义,可以指"形音义"的合体(相当于现代的"字+词"),可以指形体符号(字形),可以指形体构意(字构),也可以指字符职能(词)。已有字词关系的研究,偏重同词异字和同字异词现象,总体来看理论尚不完善,如:"字""词"称谓无法涵盖字符和语符的所有单位;不少表述字词关系的概念含混不清;对字词关系的描写并不全面;呈现的字词关系类别不成系统;缺乏对字词关系的历时性考察;缺乏对用字选择实际效果的分析;很少对字词关系的变化进行因果解释。这些问题的解决,可能有赖于将字词关系研究纳入汉字职用学体系。

For ancient Chinese,Zi("字"which means character in modern Chinese)was used to express both the concept of Character and the concept of Word.It has multiple meanings.It can refer to the combination of character form,sound and meaning,which is the sum of Character and Word in modern Chinese,and it can also refer to the graphic symbols(the character form),as well as constitution and function.The existing researches on the relationships between Chinese characters and words focus on the phenomenon of the same word with variant characters and the same character with different words,which,on the whole,is still not perfect.For example,Zi(字)and Word cannot cover all the units of character symbols and language signs;the concepts describing the relationships between Chinese characters and words are ambiguous and incomplete;the categories of the relationships between Chinese characters and words presented are not systematic.Besides,there are insufficient researches related to the diachronic examinations of the relationships between Chinese characters and words,the analysis of the practical effect of choosing different Chinese characters and the causal explanation of changes in the relationships between Chinese characters and words.The solution to all these problems hinges on incorporating the researches on the relationships between Chinese characters and words into the system of the studies on Chinese character’s functions.