汉语方言量词“兜”的来源与形成

On the Origin and Formation of “兜( dou) ”—— A Quantifier in Chinese Dialects

汉语方言量词'兜'(蔸\篼)主要见于长江以南的方言里,可做临时量词、个体量词、集合量词、不定量词。从历时语义和共时语料看,临时量词用法是借用其各类'器具'义名词,它们是从'兜鍪'之'兜'引申而来的。'兜'的个体量词、集合量词和不定量词用法源于其'草木根'义,是'株'的同源词。'草木根'义在转喻机制作用下,产生出个体量词'兜_单''兜_丛'和集合量词、不定量词。'兜_单'在类推作用下,计量有'端底'的事物,重新范畴化计量'条形物';'兜_丛'依据丛生植物的特征计量'有同一来源的人与物',相当于'群、窝',进一步泛化为专职不定量词'些'。从语义图的邻接性原则和蕴涵关系,可以得到各方言中'兜'的语义演变方向,从而填补具体方言中某个演变环节的缺失。

兜(dou),also written as蔸or篼is found in a variety of Chinese dialects in the regions south of the Yangtze River.It is used as a temporal quantifier,an individual quantifier,a collective quantifier,and an indefinite quantifier.From the perspectives of both diachronic evolution and synchronic materials,the use of the Chinese word兜as a temporal quantifier originates from the'implement'sense of the word.This sense in turn derives from the word兜in兜鍪(dou mou).The individual quantifier,the collective quantifier,and the indefinite quantifier senses of the word兜originates from the word’s sense of'grass and tree roots'.This sense has nothing to do with the form兜鍪and has the same origin as the word株.With the mechanism of analogy,兜_单is used to measure objects that have bottoms and has also been recategorized to measure bar-shaped objects.Based on the features of plant tufts,兜_丛is used to measure tufts or people/objects of the same origin and therefore is equivalent to窝and群.It is then generalized as a special indefinite quantifier to mean些.From the contiguity requirement and the implicationalrelation of the semantic map,we can see the direction of the semantic change of兜in various Chinese dialects,which help us find a missing link in the semantic change of specific dialects.