Lexical diffusion of a tonal change in reduplicates and its implications
重叠词中声调变化的词汇扩散及其含意
Chen Chung-yu 陈重瑜

Abstract 摘要
This paper examines the tonal changes in the XYY and XXYY types of reduplicates between 1932 and 1963. While most of the reduplicates exhibit no particular tonal changes, a substantial minority manifest certain changes with respect to the YY syllables. The dictionaries of the 1932 system have displayed a total of 6 tonal shapes (viz. YY, Y0, 00, 10, Yl and 11) for the YY syllables, which are found to be merely transient variants in rapid speech wherein the Weak Stress has been involved. This may be comparable to the changes occurring in certain tri-syllabic words (e.g. 121 --> 111 for “西洋参”) in rapid speech. In the 1963 system, the changes stride directly into the First Tone, bypassing the turbulent intermediate stage. Such a change is apparently on the rise in the XYY reduplicates, but has declined sharply in the XXYY ones. Onomatopoeia of the colloquial stratum, reduplicated or otherwise, and certain Northern provincial reduplicates carry predominantly the First Tone. There appears to be a correlation between the First Tone reading and the highly colloquial expressions in the language. The fact that only a minority of the XYY and XXYY reduplicates have been changing into the First Tone may very well be attributed to the level of colloquialism. The First Tone readings of the reduplicates may take root and replace the original tonal category of the character, that is, when it is not in reduplication. For instance, according to the dictionary listings, characters "微, 巍, 赳 and 悄", etc. are gradually changing into the First Tone. Transient shapes emerging in rapid speech should not be confused with, hence taken to replace, the shapes in normal speech. Therefore, apart from a small number of reduplicates wherein the YY syllables carry little or no semantic load (e.g. 羞答答, 稀刺刺), the majority in which the YY syllables do carry distinct semantic load (e.g. 绿油油, 血淋淋) should be annotated in their original tones in the dictionary. Likewise, the so-called “(lexical) Neutral Tone words” should also be annotated in their original tones. The present conception of the norms for the standard pronunciation, which underlies both the Mainland’s readiness for change and Taiwan’s resistence to change, needs revision. The Peking pronunciation should only be a starting point, but not an eternal track, for Standard Mandarin.

在汉语中，XYY和XXYY式的重叠词中的YY音节有向阴平变化的倾向。这个变化在词汇上是渐变的。本文检察了1932年至1963年间四部字典中两种重叠词中的声调变化，大部分的重叠词没有显示变化。从变化的过程来看，在原调和变化后的阴平调之间，有一个非重音的‘轻声’阶段。这实际上是一种快语速中的变调现象。本文根据上述现象又讨论了汉语的规范问题。结论是：1）北京话只能是一个标准语的起点，而不是永恒的准则。2）作为一个地大人众国家的标准语，汉语不能以一地的话语来规范。

<< Back 返回

Readers 读者