“妖”言“怪”语——论核心义对词义演变的影响和制约

Words Consisting of Demon or Monster—On the Restriction and Influence of Core Meaning on the Evolution of Word Meaning

词义总是处在不断的发展变化中。上古汉语中的“妖”“怪”“精”三词,本义有别,中古时期发展成一组同义词,均引申指大众熟悉的妖魔鬼怪,在汉语中常常连用、混用。但其实三词有各自不同的核心义,“妖”的核心义是“反常”,“怪”的核心义是“不寻常的感觉”,“精”的核心义是“超常”。在语言复音化的趋势下,三词在现代汉语中多以构词语素形式呈现,并衍生大量新词,形成各自的词群。通过分析归纳BCC语料库中出现的大量新词,发现其虽在结构形式和语义色彩上有一定变化,却始终未脱离各自的核心义磁场,充分展示了核心义对词义演变的影响和制约。

Word meaning is always in constant development and change.In ancient Chinese,the original meanings of the three monosyllabic words"yao(妖)","guai(怪)"and"jing(精)"are different,but they all can be extended to refer to demons and ghosts.They are often used together and mixed,and developed into a group of synonyms in medieval times of China.But they have different core meanings.The core meaning of"妖"is abnormal,the core meaning of"怪"is"unusual feeling",and the core meaning of"精"is extraordinary.Under the trend of polysyllabic language,the three words mostly appear in the form of morphemes in modern Chinese.And they derive a lot of new words and form their respective groups of related words.By analyzing and summarizing a large number of new words appearing in the BCC corpus,it finds that these new words have certain changes in structural form and semantic color,but their intrinsic meanings have never been separated from the core meanings.This fully shows the restriction and influence of core meaning on the evolution of word meaning.