害怕到推測:一個反復出現的詞義演變現象

From the Meaning of ’fear’ to an Epistemic Modal Meaning:a Recurring Pattern of Semantic Change in Chinese

中古以來,漢語中不斷出現由害怕義動詞演變爲推測副詞的實例。推測副詞'恐''怕''恐怕'均由害怕義動詞因詞義程度減輕變爲擔心義動詞,擔心義邏輯上隱含的推測義在語境中得到凸@,再由句法條件的允許,成爲推測副詞。'恐'六朝時已有推測義,南宋時期仍在使用;'怕'南宋時期已有推測義;宋元之際,動詞'恐怕'發展出推測副詞用法,適應了漢語詞彙雙音化的趨勢;@組推測副詞在句中可位於句首和主謂之間,後者由句子主語因話題化提到句首而造成。

In Chinese there is a recurring semantic change: from a verb meaning ’ worry’ to an epistemic modal adverb. From Han dynasty till now "kong(恐),pa(怕),and kong pa(恐怕)" have undergone a very similar development from verbs to epistemic modal adverbs. In the six dynasties "kong"had been used as an epistemic adverb and gradually was taken place by "pa" that obtained the usage of an epistemic adverb in the Southern Song dynasty and is still in use in Mandarin. The later Southern Song dynasty witnesses the emergence of "kong pa" as an epistemic adverb. Having examined the processes of the three words, this paper reveals that the mechanism for the semantic change is the highlighting of implicative meaning in contexts and this pattern of semantic change has occurred in some other languages but there are different results in particular languages.