Multiple-reading characters: Different lexemes or historical layers?
多音多义字: 不同的词位还是历史的层次?
Chung-yu Chen 陈重瑜

Abstract 摘要
The reading-meaning correspondences in poyin zi (破音字) have never been clear-cut in Middle Chinese as well as in Modern Pekinese. Results of surveys of actual pronunciations of ‘poyin zi’ and one-reading characters in Pekinese renders the term ‘poyin zi’ almost meaningless. This paper attempts to prove that the different pronunciations of such characters are historical layers in the process of sound change and are still subject to further sound change. The formation of particular ‘poyin zi’ has been entirely fortuitous, as revealed in cross-dialectal comparisons. A ‘poyin zi’ ought to be studied in its entirety rather than divided into separate ‘lexemes’, because such a division will obstruct our vision of the path of the sound change. Supporting this view, I argue that the 2nd and 3rd editions of Hanyu Fangyin Zihui are descriptive in nature and have encoded large numbers of deviations from the prescribed norms, which its first edition subscribed to. Deviations are commonplace today and must have been even more commonplace at any point in history in the absence of any broadcast norms. Qieyun (Guangyun) may very well have been descriptive like the latter editions of Zihui. To view Qieyun as a prescriptive dictionary necessarily entails a ‘compromise~collective’ interpretation.

从中古音到现代北京音，多音字 (多音多义字) 的音义对应几乎从来没有清楚的分界。而字典里的一读字在实际语音里却往往有所分歧。本文证明多音字只是音变的历史层次而且音变还会继续进展。一个字在不同方言里读音的比较显示多音字的产生的偶然性及暂时性。因此音变的研究应当把一个字中古的多音多义的发展一并检视，如果以表面的语义差异来分割一个字，结果只能看到该字音变的一斑，看不到全豹。《汉语方音字汇》第二、三版是描述性的记录；而第一版则显然是官方的规范音。今日口语里，声调不稳定，中古音里应当是更不稳定；因为没有广播与电视的示范。《广韵》应当就如《字汇》第二、三版,是描述性的记录。如果把《广韵》看成是规范性质的，就只好找出‘综合性质’一类的解释来使这个系统合理化.

Subject Keywords 关键词

Pekinese 北京话 Sound change 音变 Phonology 音韵 Multiple-reading characters 破音字 Tones 声调 Dialects 方言

Article 文章

<< Back 返回

Readers 读者