To use and to cause: 使用 shi-yong "to use" and the derivation of indirect causation in Chinese
“使”和“用”：“使用”和汉语一种使成式的产生
Chaofen Sun 孙朝奋

Abstract 摘要
This paper is an effort to identify the etymology that makes possible for the Early Modern Chinese verb zhuo, written as 著 or 着, to function as a causative verb in a serial-verb (or periphrastic) construction. Although it is no longer a productive causative construction in modern standard speech, it is still widely used as such in Early Modern Chinese and continues to be used in some formal writing in modern time. The meaning of indirect causation is found to be derived from, or related to, zhuo’s original, verbal meaning “to place” in Old Chinese. Both metonymization and metaphorization, as are defined within the theoretical framework proposed by Traugott and Dasher (2002: 4), are involved in the relevant historical changes. The former gives rise to the verbal meaning of “to use” in Middle Chinese, which, in turn, leads to a number of metaphorical processes that ultimately produce the Early Modern Chinese causative meaning. The initial intuition for such a hypothesis comes from a somewhat formal Modern Chinese verbal compound shi-yong 使用 “to use”, which is comprised of two morphemes shi “to cause” and yong “to use.” The Chinese story reported here then adds to those observed by Heine and Kuteva (2002: 328) still another lexical source, i.e., “to use,” from which meaning of causation may arise.

本文旨在调查“着”字在早期官话联动式中作使动动词有关的历史。“着”字这样的非直接使动用法，虽然在现代汉语口语中几乎已经绝迹，在现代汉语书面语中仍然经常可见。调查发现，该使动义与其古汉语中的放置义有着刀切莲藕斯不断的关系。在历史演变中，Traugott 和 Dasher（2000: 4）理论框架里的两个演变机制，语义引伸（metonymization）和隐喻（metaphorization）都起到了很大的作用。首先，“着”字从较基本的动词性放置义引伸出中古的使用义，然后又由于中古的“使”与“用”语义相通，“着”字又通过“使”而取得了使动义。“使”和“用”在中古的内在连系还反映在现代汉语“使用”这个复合动词上。本文的发现更为Heine and Kuteva (2002: 328)所列出的使动词可能源头又增加了一个新的可能。

Subject Keywords 关键词

Zhuo 著 Shiyong 使用 Causative 使动 Semantic change 语义变化 History of Chinese 汉语历史

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