文法、修辭與意義——1920至1940年代關於漢字“多義性”的討論

Grammar, Rhetoric and Meaning——The Discussion on the Polysemicity of Chinese Characters Between 1920 and 1940

本文以1920至1940年代相關論著爲研究範圍,由'文法'與'修辭'的語義分合出發,討論背後一個根本的焦慮:漢字或漢語究竟該如何對應以英語爲主的文法。其中,一方面思考西方以詞類、句法爲主的文法,如何可能規範漢語語境下的讀書作文;另一方面思考,修辭如果並不全等於標準文法,那麽不同於拼音符號的漢語或漢字,如何在認知、指涉之外,透過本義的引申、假借、類比來引發同情共感。更重要的是,討論漢字或漢語會如何表述那些牽引在説寫/閲聽雙方的經驗、心理狀態之間紛繁如'詩'的意義線索。而這股關於漢字'多義性'的論述潮流,明顯不同於當時漢字拼音化、符號化的'現代'工程,反倒可能是20世紀上半葉,一種翻轉'現代視線'的重要現象。

This essay is focused on discourses and writings on the semantic divergence and confluence of“grammar”and“rhetoric”between 1920 and 1940 to explore a fundamental anxiety behind:how can Chinese characters interact with an Englishbased grammar.On the one hand,I explore the way English grammar,which relies mainly on morphology and syntax,regulates the reading and writing in Chinese context.On the other hand,I ponder on the issue that,if rhetoric cannot be completely confined within standard grammar,then how Chinese characters,which do not have a syllabic structure,go beyond the writer's referential point or perceptions and induce empathetic feelings through semantic derivation,phonetic loaning,and analogy.More importantly,this essay probes into the way Chinese characters express the“poetically-rich”implications which are entangled with the psychological states of the writer/reader.This discursive trend dealing with the polysemicity of Chinese characters is apparently different from another trend of trying to modernize Chinese language through syllabilization and linguistic signification then.The discourse of polysemicity in Chinese can be justified as a crucial overturn of the modern gaze.