The enigma variations: Response to Sampson

Daniel Silverman

Abstract 摘要
The Chinese pattern discussed by Geoff Sampson is surely remarkable, but it’s not enigmatic, and it’s certainly not paradoxical. Morphological responses to natural phonetic tendencies are encountered quite frequently in language change. The linguistic system, with its myriad phonetic and semantic pressures effecting changes simultaneously and at times antagonistically, always emerges functionally unscathed, its semantic clarity intact. The crux of the matter is this: Sampson is casting his net too narrowly, focusing on the morpheme (very roughly, 字; ts), rather than the lexeme (very roughly, 詞; ts). In the ongoing history of Mandarin, it is predominantly the lexeme, rather than the morpheme, over which the phonetic and semantic pressures on language use and structure demonstrably exert their influence.