“挣扎”考辨

A Study on“Zhengzha(挣扎)”

在现代汉语中,“挣扎”一词的使用频率很高,很多学者将它看作是联绵词,而相对忽略了其构成成分“挣”“扎”的具体含义。实际上,“挣扎”并非单纯词,而是同义连用。通过对“挣扎”书写形式、词义演变的梳理,可以发现,“挣扎”的本字应为“张磔”。“张”“磔”二字同义连文,并受“张开”的核心义制约,“挣扎”遂产生了“摆脱”和“获取、拥有”两个主要义项。

The word“zhengzha(挣扎)”is frequently used in modern Chinese and regarded as a disyllabic word by many scholars.Therefore,its word-formation components“zheng(挣)”“zha(扎)”are ignored.In fact,“zhengzha(挣扎)”is not a single-morpheme word,but a synonymic co-ordinate compound.Through examinations of the different writing forms and the lexical meaning change,we learn that the original form of“zhengzha(挣扎)”is“zhangzhe(张磔)”.The core meaning of“zhang(张)”“zhe(磔)”is“open”.Restricted by the core meaning,it produces two main senses,cast off and get.