从数量范畴到假设条件的演变——从重庆话“二回”谈起

The Change from the Quantity category to the Supposition condition:Taking Chongqing Dialect“Erhui”as an Example

语言类型学研究表明,语言中存在着从时间范畴到条件范畴的演变路径。其实,这一演变路径还可以进行扩展,至少在汉语中,存在着一条由数量范畴到时间范畴,再经由时间范畴到条件范畴的演变路径,却鲜有人注意。在重庆话中,数量短语“二回”表示“两次”或“第二次”;当“二”的数词义弱化时,“二回”凝固为时间词,泛指“下次”;在时间域内,如凸显时间段时,由表时间点的“下次”义引申为表时间段的“以后”义。当“以后”义的“二回”常用在表示假设关系复句中的背景条件小句句首时,“二回”虚化为表假设的条件连词。从数量到时间再到假设的演变路径同样存在于在西南官话、中原官话等方言区以及汉语史中,甚至英语中也存在上述同样的演变路径。

The study of linguistic typology shows that there exists an evolution path from temporal category to conditional category in language. In fact, this evolution path can also be extended. At least in Chinese, there is such an evolutionary path from quantity category to temporal category, and then from temporal category to condition category, which is seldom perceived by researchers. In Chongqing dialect, the quantitative phrase erhui (二回) means “twice” or “the second time”. When the meaning of "two" as a numeral weakens, erhui is lexicalized to represent the general meaning of "next time". In the time domain, if the time period is highlighted, the meaning of “next time” is changed to "later" of the time period. As erhui often occurs at the beginning of a complex sentence to express a supposition relationship, it is grammatically transformed into a conditional conjunction. The above evolution path is also found in other dialects such as Southwest Mandarin, Central Plains Mandarin, and is even found in English.