再谈“给(gěi)”的来源——与赵葵欣先生商榷兼论字词关系的复杂性

The Origin of Gei 给 Revisited:A Discussion with Pro.ZHAO Kuixin and Some Issues of the Complexity of the Character-word Relation

现代汉语常用词“给(gěi)”的来源问题学界异说纷纭,迄无定论。本文重申来自“过与”合音说,主要针对赵葵欣(2021)提出三点商讨意见,重点讨论了“过与”的使用频率问题:补充了众多新例证,把“过与”的始见时代提前至十六国时期;分析了“过与”使用频率不如“与”的六点原因,认为文献中“过与”出现频率低并不意味着它在实际口语中不常用因而不具备合音的条件;勾勒了给予义动词在中古近代汉语时期的演变链,并依据《老乞大》的四种版本梳理了“给”替换“与”的过程。“给”的个案反映了字词关系的复杂性:有些同形字很隐蔽,必须摆脱“当代语感干扰”,破除字形的外衣,深入到语言里的词(音义结合体),才能了解其实质,探明其来源。我们要研究的是古代的活语言(有声语言),正确的语言文字观事关全局。

There have been plenty of discussions over the origin of the common word gei给 in Modern Chinese but no conclusion has so far been reached.This paper reiterates that gei originates from syllabic fusion of guoyu过与 and discusses with ZHAO Kuixin(2021) mainly on three viewpoints,especially focusing on the usage frequency of guoyu.These viewpoints are elucidated as follows.(i) The paper provides many new examples of guoyu and traces it back to the Sixteen States Period(4-5^(th) century A.D.);(ii) It analyzes six possible reasons of why guoyu was less frequently used than yu 与 and holds that low frequency in historical documents does not mean guoyu was not commonly used in colloquial speech so that it lacks the conditions of syllabic fusion;(iii) outlines the evolution chain of the GIVE verb in Middle and Modern Ancient Chinese and depicts the process of gei ousting yu based on 4 editions of Laoqida 《老乞大》.This case study reveals the complexity of the character-word relation,that is,some homographic characters are deeply hidden;only by casting off ‘the interference from the contemporary language awareness’,unveiling the disguise of the character pattern and settling down to words(phonology-meaning pairings) in real language,can we eventually grasp their essences and sources.What should be researched is the ancient living language,which is audible in nature.The correct view of languages and characters is of overall importance.