从分别到指示全体——中古“X别”成因考探

From Separate to Universal Reference:On the Cause of the Formation of“X bie(别)”in Middle Chinese

中古汉语中,有一种较为特殊的组合“X别”。其中“别”或释作“每”,其功能实际是对名词性成分“X”指称范畴全体进行指示。这种指示全体的“别”,来源于分别义的副词“别”,是在一定的语境下产生的。名词“X”本身就有指称范畴内全体成员的功能,但因没有形态变化,常常与指称其范畴本身的用法同形。“别”因与指称范畴内全体成员的“X”共现,其原有的词义“分别”又容易被整个句子的语义覆盖,因而才会被看作一个专门用来指示范畴全体的成分。“别”的发展是受语境影响由实义性成分向功能性成分转移的过程,“X别”最终并未演变成词,而是一个介于结构和词之间的成分。

“X bie(别)”is a peculiar construction in middle Chinese.The element“bie(别)”has been intepreted as the demonstrative pronoun“mei(每)”,the function of which is actually to denote all the entities within the category designated by the nominal component“X”.The demonstrative“bie(别)”indicating“totality”originated from the adverb meaning“respectiveness”in a given context.The noun“X”originally has the function of referring to all members of the category,but due to lack of morphological modification in Chinese,it shares the same form as the category itself.Because of the co-occurrence of“bie(别)”and the word“X”which used to refer to all members of the category and the tendency that its original meaning of“respectiveness”is covered by the semantic of the whole sentence,it came to be regarded as an element specially indicate the totality of the categories.The evolution of“X bie(别)”is a process of shifting from conceptual meaning to functional meaning.However,it has not evolved into a full-fledged word,but only a grammatical element somewhere between a function affix and a word.