The semantic and syntactic differences between 至于 and 至於 in Warring States period texts
战国文献里出现的‘至于’、‘至於’的语意上、语法上的差异
Jung-Im Chang 张廷任

Abstract 摘要
This paper supports and extends the results of previous studies, such as Pulleyblank (1986) and Chang (2012), that argue that the choice of 于 or 於 in Classical Chinese is not random, but rather is conditioned by the features of the preceding verb. Through a close examination of the co-occurrence of 于 and 於 with the high-frequency verb 至 in six Warring States period texts, it is shown that additional semantic and syntactic factors influence the choice between the two. Semantically speaking, while both 至于 and 至於 occur followed by a noun indicating a place, a time, or a person—all of which can be described as [+concrete] goals—it is only 至於 that occurs followed by a degree, result, or extent, which can be described as [-concrete] goals. The [-concrete] goals that appear as objects of 至於 include a near demonstrative pronoun 此, a noun (including an abstract noun) or noun phrase, a verb phrase, and even a sentence. Syntactically speaking, only “至於+ Noun” appears in nominalized contexts in complex syntactic structures, such as before a nominalizer 者, before or after a relativizer 所, and as a head noun after a possessive/attributive marker 之. These findings provide additional support for the claim that 于 and 於 represent distinct lexical items, with distinct semantic feature sets, in Classical Chinese.

在现代汉语中, “是”是一组连接词如“可是”“但是”的组成部分。前人的研究(董秀芳2004等)认为这一系列连词的发展经历了词汇化过程(Lehmann 2002)即结构字符串[Y COP]随着时间推移逐渐失去了他们的内部组合性并融合成一个语素单位。本文采用Brinton and Traugott (2005)区分词汇化和语法化的标准, 以及Traugott and Trousdale (2013)的构式化理论, 论证了系词“是”跟前面的语素Y结合,变成粘着语素经历了语法构式化而非Lehmann所谓的词汇化。本文从图式性,能产性和组合性这三个构式化维度来论证该变化是个语法构式化过程,并指出语用推测和类比是该变化的动因,而重新分析,类比化和主观化则是该变化的机制。

Keywords 关键词

Zhiyu 至于 Zhiyu 至於 yu于 yu於 Warring States period texts 战国文献


Journal of Chinese Linguistics vol.45, no.1 (June 2017): 145-192
Copyright © 2017 Journal of Chinese Linguistices. All rights reserved.

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