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复旦:2016.07.22叁语义演变的规律性吴福祥0.引言1.什么是语义演变的规律2.语义演变有哪些规律3.为什么要研究语义演变的规律4.结语0.引言新语法学派最重要的贡献是发现语音演变的规律性,此后历史语言学家进一步发现,跟语音演变一样,人类语言的形态句法演变也具有显著的规律,尽管其规律的严整性不及语音演变。语义演变有没有规律?有什么样的规律?体现在哪些概念域?应该如何对这类规律进行概括?这些问题以往的语言学家特别是历史语言学家聚讼纷纭。本文尝试对这些问题进行初步的探讨。1.什么是语义演变的规律1.1语义演变有没有规律性?以往语言学家有不同看法。■■一种观点明确主张语义演变没有规律,例如RaimoAnttila、AnthonyArlotto和HansHenrichHock等。Anttila(1972:147){Anintroductiontohistoricalandcomparativelinguistics}“Ithasnotbeenpossibletoformulatetrulygenerallawsofsemanticchange”.Arlotto(1972:165):IntroductiontohistoricallinguisticsStudiesinsemanticchangesofarhavenotresultedintheformulationofabstractmodelsoreveninthereasonededucatedguessworkthatpervadesthestudyofphonological,morphological,andsyntacticchange.Onereasonforthisisquiteobvious,thesemanticmodelsofgeneralorsynchroniclinguisticsarethemselvesquitelimitedandnotapplicabletoallcases.Hock(1986:308):PrinciplesofhistoricallinguisticsExamplesliketheonejustciteddemonstratethatundercertaincircumstancesemanticchangecanbequiteregularandsystematic,However,thisshouldnotdetractfromthefactthatinmostcases,semanticchangeis‘fuzzy’,highlyirregular,andextremelydifficulttopredictAsaconsequence,thereseemtobenonaturalconstraintsonthedirectionsandresultsofsemanticchange.Givenenoughimagination—anddaring—itispossibletoclaimsemanticrelationshipforalmostanytwowordsunderthesun.”(Hock1986:308)Fox(1995:111)Linguisticreconstruction:anintroductiontotheoryandmethodThereisalsolittleinsemanticchangewhichbearsanyrelationshiptoregularityinphonologi-calchange■■另外一些语言学家则主张或相信语义演变是有规律的,甚至在某些概念域里有望发现类似于语音演变那种意义上的演变定律。较早明确主张语义演变具有规律性的学者是德国语言学家威廉·冯特(WilhelmWundt)在其1900年出版的《民族心理学》(Volkerpsychologie)中主张“语义演变跟音系演变一样具有严格的规律性”WilhelmWundt(1900:437)Volkerpsychologie(民族心理学)Semanticchange,inthesamewayasphonologi-calchange,issubjecttostrictregularities,whosediscoveryisonlyimpededbythecompetitionofmanifoldcausesofvariousorigins.上个世纪80年代以来,更多的语言学家倾向语义演变是有规律的,特别是与语法化相关的语义演变甚至具有显著的可预测性。Traugott(1985a,1985b,1986a,1986b,1988,1989,1999),TraugottandDasher(1987,2002),TraugottandHeine(1991),TraugottandKonig(1991),Sweetser(1982,1987,1990),NikiforidauandSweetser(1989),Bybee(1985,1988,1990),BybeeandPagliuca(1985),Bybeeetal.(1991),Heine(1992),Heineetal(1991),Geeraerts(1983,1985,1986),Evans(1992),andWilkins(1981,1989b,1991).Sweetser(1990):在很多语义域(semanticdomains)里,我们是可以判定哪些语义演变的方向是自然的,哪些语义演变的方向是不自然的,这就像在音系学里,我们知道一个浊塞音若位于词首位置则很可能变成清塞音,或者若居于元音之间则将会变成擦音,而不可能有其他演变方向。Wilkins(1996:266)Thesetrendshaveleadtoaviewthat,insteadofbeingwild,chaotic,andunpredictable,semanticchangeisinmanycasesregularandisoftenpredictableandthatnaturaltendenciesofsemanticchangeariseoutoftheuniversalityofcertaincognitiveprocessesand/oroutofuniversaltraitstobefoundintheproductionandinterpretationoffullycontextualizednaturaldiscourse.Traugott(1985:168)Ihopetohaveshownbythesefewbriefexamplesthatmuchsemanticchangeishighlyregular,soregular,indeed,thattestablehypothesescanbedevelopedandinvestigated.Ofcourse,onecannotpredictexactlywhenorifagivenchangewilloccur.whilewecanpredictthatifalanguagehastemporalterms,markersofgrammaticalrelations,connectives,mentalorspeechactverbs,someofthemwillbederivedfromspatialtermsofacertainkind,wecannottellwhichchangewilloccur,orwhen.Traugott(1989:31)Theevidenceissubstantialthattheprocessofsemanticchangeoutlinedforthesemanticsofgrammaticali-zationbelongstoalargersetofcross-linguisticprocessesofsemanticchangethatareingeneralquiteregular.Indeed,theyaresoregularthatitispossibletodeveloppredictivehypothesesthatcanbetestedagainsthistoricaldata.Theyaresufficientlypredictivethatonecantakesynchronicpolysemiesfromanyperiodinanylanguageandprojectchangebackintothepast.Inotherwords,onecandointernalsemantic-pragmaticreconstruction(Traugott1986a,1987).Traugott(1990:497-498)Itturnsoutthattheprocessofsemanticchangeoutlinedforthesemanticsofgrammaticalizationbelongstoalargersetofprocessesofsemanticchangethatareingeneralquiteregular.Indeed,theyaresoregularthatitispossibletodeveloppredictivehypotheses.Theyarepredictiveinthesensethatonecantestthemagainsthistoricaldataandshowtheircorrectness.Further,theyarepredictiveinthesensethatonecantakesynchronicpolysemiesfromanyperiodinanylanguageandprojectchangebackintothepast,inotherwords,onecandointernalsemantic-pragmaticreconstruction.Traugott&Dasher(2002:1)RegularityinsemanticchangeInthisbookweshowthattherearepredictablepathsforsemanticchangeacrossdifferentconceptualstructuresanddomainsoflanguagefunction.Mostespeciallywewillshowthat,despitecentury-oldtaxonomiesthatsuggestthatmeaningchangesarebidirectional,e.g.generalizationandnarrowing,metaphorandmetonymy,whenwetracethehistoriesoflexemescross-linguisticallyweinfactrepeatedlyfindevidenceforunidirectionalchanges.Traugott&Dasher(2002:1)RegularityinsemanticchangeTheregularitiesare,however,shiftsfromonelinguisticallycodedmeaningtoanother,forexample,fromobligationtodosomethingtoconclusionthatsomethingisthecase.Suchregularitiesareprototypicaltypesofchangesthatarereplicatedacrosstimesandlanguages.Theyarepossible,indeedprobable,tendencies,notchangesthatarereplicatedacro
本文标题:003 (吴福祥老师)语义演变的规律性(1)
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