英汉日PLEASE类敬语演化的历时比较研究

A Diachronic Comparative Study of the Development of PLEASE Honorifics in English, Chinese and Japanese

本文基于语法化理论以及英汉日各历史时期的语料,对PLEASE类敬语演化的路径进行描述,并通过对比三者在句法、语义等不同层面上的共性和差异,解析英日汉PLEASE类敬语语法化路径出现的深层理据,发现PLEASE类敬语呈现出语义都越来越趋于程序义,句法规则越来越自由,主观化的倾向越来越强,语境层面上使用的范围越来越广等特点,得出PLEASE类敬语演变的机制是重新分析、类推、转喻和隐喻的结论。

Based on the grammaticalization theory and the corpus of English, Chinese and Japanese from an-cient times to the present, this study describes the evolution path of PLEASE Honorifics. By com-paring the similarities and differences of PLEASE Honorifics in syntax and semantics of English, Chinese, Japanese and, and analyzing the deep motivation behind its paths, it is found that PLEASE Honorifics presents certain similarities and regularities in the evolution process. The evolution of PLEASE Honorifics is the process of grammaticalization, with the characteristics of more and more procedural semantics, more free syntactic distribution, more subjective tendency, and more and more extensive use at the context level. It is concluded that the evolution mechanism of PLEASE Honorifics is reanalysis, analogy, metonymy and metaphor.