汉语“说类词”的历时演变与共时分布

Diachronic evolution and synchronic distribution of "shuo-type verbs" in Chinese

"说类词"是言说动词语义场中的上位词,它的语义是"用言语表达意思",主要用法有七类。现代汉语方言的"说类词"主要有三个:北方话的"说",南方方言的"话"和中部方言的"讲"。作为"说类词",它们的确立都是近代汉语阶段的事:"话"约形成于唐代;"说"约定型于唐宋之际;"讲"在历史文献中只能追溯到元代,它的产生时间和扩散过程还有待进一步研究。本文旨在为从历时和共时相结合的角度研究汉语基本词汇的发展变化作一点探索。

'shuo(说)-type verbs', as the superordinate in the semantic field of speaking verbs, mean 'to express one's meanings with words', and have seven main types of uses. There are three such verbs in Modern Chinese dialects, they are 'shuo(说)' in Mandarin Chinese, hua(话) in Southern China dialects and jiang(讲) in Central China dialects. As shuo type verbs, they have been established in the Pre-modern Chinese period: hua was probably established in Tang Dynasty; shuo was probably in the turn of Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty (960 A. D. -1279 A. D.); and jiang can only be traced to Yuan Dynasty (1279 A. D.-1368 A. D.) in historical literature, while its exact emergence time and the process of its spread is yet to be clarified. The paper aims to make an exploration of the development and change of basic lexicon in Chinese from the diachronic-synchronic perspective.