汉语南方方言的动宾补语序——兼谈与壮侗语的语言接触问题

The “Verb-Object-Resultative Complement ” Word Order in Southern Chinese Dialects,with Special Remarks on Language Contact with Kam-Tai Languages

语序和致使性程度有很密切的关系,这在很大程度上是现代汉语的共时特征。因此,动补宾语序(略记为VCO)以已然用法为主,南方方言中存在的动宾补语序(略记为VOC)一般只限于非现实情态或未然用法。然而,中国南方少数民族和汉族交界地区的情况却很特殊,广西、海南岛部分汉语方言是在壮侗语的包围和影响下形成的,它们使用高度能产的VOC。这不是中古汉语的遗留形式,而是语言接触诱发的演变结果。可见,在现代汉语中VCO和VOC两种语序的共时并存并不是偶然的巧合现象。

VOC( the "verb-object-resultative complement"word order) that prevailed in Middle Chinese is still used in South China,especially in the Wu dialect,although it has basically disappeared in North China.However,little is known about the mechanism of formation of the VOC.This paper suggests that the difference in word order is closely related to the degree of transitivity(properly,causativity) in Chinese languages.VCO( the "verb-resultative complement-object"word order) is used to describe realis situations,because this word order intensifies the degree of transitivity to its object.On the other hand,VOC is usually limited to irrealis uses such as the subjunctive mood and an imperative sentence.Moreover,VOC is much less productive than VCO grammatically.These facts mean that the VOC is a syntactic form that shows lower transitivity than VCO.However,we have some exceptions in southern Chinese dialects.Frontier languages spoken mainly in parts of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region( with some speakers in the Yunnan province) and Hainan Island,such as Pinghua,Hainanese,and so on,have highly productive VOC that can describe realis situations.This paper considers that VOC still prevails in these areas because of "language contact"with Kam-Tai languages that always use VOC,especially the Zhuang languages and the Hlai languages.Different from the prevailing opinions,the origin of VOC spoken among the frontier languages cannot be entirely dated back to Middle Chinese.