《辞源》(1915)与汉语的近代化

The Ciyuan and the modernization of Chinese

中国自古有字书,而没有辞书。1915年的《辞源》是第一本以收录复合词为主的"辞"之典。面临新学的导入和学术用语的大量涌现,语言社会需要紧急应对,不同以往的工具书应运而生。标榜"穷原竟委"的《辞源》,实际上是要解决新词的问题。大量的没有明示书证的无源词的存在正是《辞源》这一目的的具体表现。本文对《辞源》中无源词的情况做了细致的梳理。为"五四"新文化运动在词语层面做了准备,这是《辞源》的历史功绩。本文特别指出:言文一致的本质是近代科学叙事,即在教育机关讲授科学。为达此目的,不仅需要学术用语,还需要双音节的谓词,即动词与形容词。但这对于《辞源》来说是一个未竟的事业。本文对现代汉语中的双音节谓词来源及相关研究方法也做了简明扼要的说明。

Lexicons have long existed in China; however,this is not the case with word dictionaries. The Ciyuan,published in 1915,represented the first "word"( ci) dictionary gathering principally compound words. Facing the introduction of new learning and the emergence of a great amount of technical terms,both language and society urgently needed to provide an answer:therefore,reference books,different from those of the past,came into existence. Advertised as a dictionary that "thoroughly investigates all manner of details",the Ciyuan actually had to resolve the question of neologisms. The presence of a huge quantity of words without sources,and without definite written evidence,is precisely the concrete manifestation of the objective of the Ciyuan.This article meticulously sorts the circumstances of words without sources included within the Ciyuan; an historical achievement of the Ciyuan was the preparation of the way for the May Fourth New Culture Movement at a terminological level. The article particularly points out that the essence of the unification of spoken and written language was represented by the narration of modern science,namely teaching science within educational bodies. In order to achieve this goal,not only were technical terms required,but also disyllabic predicates,to wit verbs and adjectives;nevertheless,this represents for the Ciyuan an unfinished task. The article also concisely explains the source of disyllabic predicates of modern Chinese and relevant research methods.