从汉语量词“个”的普遍使用看汉语的强空间性特质

The Strong Spatiality Trait of the Chinese Language as Seen from the Generalized Use of the Chinese Classifier Ge(个)

学界目前主要从经济性原则(周国光1996)和语体分工(孙汝建1996)解释汉语通用量词“个”的泛化使用。虽各有其理,却有待进一步充实和深入。本文对比分析英汉表量结构以及汉语通用量词与专用量词的差异,主要发现有三:1)汉语量词在表义上具有余性,其认知的实质在于强化名词的空间性;2)专用量词和“个”具有语体分工,是因为两者对空间性表征的详略度不同,在不同程度上满足汉民族表达空间性的心理需求;3)汉语专用量词和通用量词并存,说明汉民族表达空间性的方式已形成详略度不一的选择系统,“个”已演化为表达空间性的图式标记,这既可使空间性表达更具弹性,也更便于人们基于空间性构建非空间性经验,这说明汉语母语者对空间性思维的偏爱。

In Chinese,the use of the classifier ge(个)is generalized,which can co-occur with almost all the countable nouns.Existing studies mainly interpret the generalized use of ge from the perspective of the Economy Principle(Zhou 1996).They claim that the development of ge(which is semantically vacuous)is a solution to simplify the classifier system,because the large number of specialized classifiers burdened the memory of people.The present paper holds that the Economy Principle can hardly explain the extensive use of general classifiers adequately.In actuality,the co-existence of general and specialized classifiers further complicates the Chinese classifier system in that the use of Chinese classifiers,including specialized and general classifiers alike,are semantically redundant.Other studies propose there are stylistic differences between specialized vs.general classifiers,with the former being formal and the latter informal(Sun 1996).This idea seems to be widely adopted,but still needs further explanation of the cognitive mechanism underlying the division of labor in register.The present paper makes a contrastive analysis of the classifier systems in English and Chinese and probes into the differences between Chinese general and specialized classifiers.Three main findings are presented as follows.1)Even in the expression of concepts with the highest level of spatiality,i.e.,the individual nouns,Chinese classifier system shows more preferences for spatiality than their English counterparts.In essence,Chinese classifiers are semantically redundant,and their cognitive import lies in their strengthening and superimposing the spatiality on nouns,which indicates Chinese attaches much more importance to the expression of spatiality than English even at the risk of violating the Economy Principle;2)Specialized classifiers and ge have a division of labor in register because they represent different degrees of specificity in spatial representation.The specialized classifiers are more formal because they meet the psychological needs of the Chinese people to express spatiality more fully than general classifiers.3)The fact that Chinese specialized classifiers and general classifiers coexist indicates that the Chinese expression system for spatiality has developed a paradigmatic selective system with varying degrees of specificity.Ge has evolved into a schematic marker for the expression of spatiality,which not only allows for more flexible spatial expression but also facilitates the construction of non-spatial experiences based on spatiality.This suggests a preference among native Chinese speakers for a spatial way of thinking.