摘要
同义多调字指一个汉字可读两个或多个不同声调而意思并无变化。关于同义多调字的成因,学界的解释多种多样,没有一个统一阐释的理论。本文列述了前贤有关粤语同义多调字产生的诸多原因——音变分化、古调继承、口语(词)造字、偏旁误读等,其中重要观点是音段音变(清浊声母、不同类型的韵尾等)导致音高变化并对应形成不同声调。系统地看,决定声调成为辨义单位的关键因素是母语社会群体的范畴化感知和社会约定。语音时刻在变,如果某字音高变化接近另一声调音高并在独立状态维持的时间够长,社会群体就可能对其重新约定,从而造成一个字拥有两种或多种声调的现象。这就是声调的本质,即声调是社会群体通过范畴化感知对音高形式的约定,而多调字是社会群体对音高变化感知进行多次约定的结果。
A polytonal Chinese character is one that can be pronounced in two or more different tones without changing its meaning.The causes of polytonal Chinese characters have been variously interpreted by scholars;however,there is no single theory of interpretation.This article presents a list of the many reasons why polytonal characters exist in Cantonese,including phonetic differentiation,ancient tonal inheritance,oral(word)character creation,and misinterpretation of Chinese character components,among which the important point is that phonetic segmental changes lead to changes in pitch and emergence of different tones(by voiceless and voiced consonants,different types of word endings,etc.).Systematically,the key determinants of tone as a unit of differentiated meaning are the contextualized perceptions and social conventions of the native social group.Phonology is constantly changing,and if a word’s pitch changes are close to that of another tone and remain independent for long enough,the social group may adopt it,resulting in a word having two or more tones.This is the nature of tone,i.e.,tone is the agreement of the social group on the form of the pitch through category-based perception,and polytonal words are the result of multiple agreements on the perception of pitch changes by the social group.In Cantonese,there are quite a series of polytonal Chinese characters which are the same between segment forms,grammar usages,meaning,and pragmatics.They can be coined as“characters with tone variants”or“synonymous characters with multi-tones”.With the development of the standardization of Cantonese,some scholars have begun to study the causes of these characters with multi-tones.Consequently,multi-tones of characters are also one of the important phenomena.Recent studies show that a Chinese character tone is not simply determined by the internal factor such as the pitch or length of syllable,but is shared by the same social group through the categorization of the pitch form with the psychological consensus or agreement(Guo&Jiang,2020;Wu&Jiang,2017).The pronunciation of two or more different tones of a Chinese character is also the result of the social group’s re-arrangement of pitch changes.From this perspective,this article attempts to answer the question of why some characters in modern Cantonese have multiple-tone pronunciation.There are four main aspects to account for this:The tonal split from Middle Chinese.Especially there are Cantonese characters can be pronounced with both“Yin”and“Yang”tones which correspond to high register and low register respectively.And there are also characters of pronunciation of different tones within“Yang”tones.(1)绕:[jiu2]/[jiu5]别:[bit3]/[bit6]肾:[san5]/[san6]The multi-tones inherited from middle Chinese.Some multi-tones of Cantonese are found its source from Guangyun《广韵》which represents the Middle Chinese.(2)眩:[jyun4]—“胡涓切”《广韵》跨:[kwaa1]:“苦瓜切”《广韵》[jyun6]—“黄练切”《广韵》[kwaa3]:“苦化切”《广韵》The multi-tones of colloquial Cantonese words.This is a special kind of multi-tones.The pronunciation and graphs of Cantonese words have not been strictly standardized or reviewed.Therefore,the pronunciation of the characters is somewhat random,and the pronunciation of different Cantonese dialect speakers may be different.(3)擝:[mang1]/[mang3]捼(挼):[no1]/[no4]矋():[lai3]/[lai6]The misleading of radicals from Character itself.The Multi-tones due to characters or radicals is often regarded as“misreading”,which is closely related to the social group of native speakers.(4)Characters:综[zung1][zung3]悍[hon5]/[hon6]Radicals:宗[zung1]旱[hon5]Based on the facts above,the multi-tones in Cantonese are not necessarily corresponding with segments such as different types of consonants and codas.The changes of pitch or category might be the key to this phenomenon.Specifically,when the pitch value of a character changes and approaches another tone,it would probably cause disturbances in category perception.Assuming that some speakers,or gradually transition to all speakers,accept the new pitch value of a character,it means that in their category perception,the word can be perceived as another tonal category.In other words,the change of pitch prompts the speaker to re-agree on the tonal category of the character.As a result,the character acquires the status of having two tones,which is known as a polytonic character.Phonological segments might play an important role in tonal changes,but social agreement and categorical perception are the key factors which decide phonological status of tone.If two kinds of pitch of one tone overlap for an extend period of time,the social agreement of tone may be reshuffled so that Chinese characters possess two pitch forms.It is essential that tone is derived from social agreement in categorical pitch perception,and multi-tone Chinese characters resulted from the changing process of social agreement.
作者
江荻
郭承禹
Jiang Di;Guo Chengyu(School of Linguistic Sciences and Arts,Jiangsu Normal University;Chinese Academy of Social Sciences;Faculty of Arts and Sciences,Beijing Normal University)
出处
《韵律语法研究》
2022年第1期66-87,共22页
Studies in Prosodic Grammar
基金
国家社科基金重大项目(21&ZD304)
国家自然科学基金面上项目(31271337)资助
关键词
粤语
多调字
范畴化感知
群体约定
Cantonese
polytonal Chinese characters
category-based perception
social convention
作者简介
江荻,jiangdi@cass.org.cn;郭承禹,guochengyu@bnu.edu.cn
