论汉语字、词、词素的本位问题

On the Positions of Character, Word and Morpheme in the Chinese Language

汉语文的"字"虽然很特殊,但汉语文的历史发展又使词和词素概念成为必要。古汉语基本结构单位以单音形式为主,是一种字、词、词素三位一体的"字本位语言";现代汉语的基本结构单位以复音形式为主,是一种字、词、词素有别的"词本位语言"。当前的字本位理论是向古汉语的回归,不适应"词本位"的现代汉语;其"字"、"字组"概念所指歧异,不符合荀子提出的"善名"标准。恰当的选择仍应是让字、词、词素之名鼎足三分,各行其道。现代语言科学理应面向当今。

Zi' (Character) is a special level in the Chinese written language which was the focus of study in traditional Chinese linguistics in the past. However, the development of the Chinese language requires the introduction of another two concepts: word and morpheme. Ancient Chinese is a monosyllabic 'characterstandard' language, which is basically the unity of character, word and morpheme with only a few exceptions. Modern Chinese, on the contrary, is a' wordstandard' language whose main structural unit is polysyllabic words and in which characters, words and morphemes are different from each other. The 'characterstandard' theory, which is not fit for modern Chinese, is simply a regression to ancient Chinese. The concepts of 'character' and' character group' in this theory are misleading, and they are not consistent with the 'nice name' standard stipulated by Xunzi. The best choice is to distinguish character, word and morpheme from each other in terms of their functions. Our theory of the Chinese language should be consistent with the reality of the language and modern linguistic theories.