基本詞彙與語言演變

Basic Words and Language Evolution

本文利用Swadesh(1952,1955)提出的基本詞彙表來探討語言演變中的一些問題。根據陳保亞(1996)劃分詞階的方法，Swadesh的200詞可一分為二：第100詞稱為高階詞；餘下的100詞稱為低階詞。高階詞比低階詞更穩定，更難以借用。因此，高階詞的同源保留率比低階詞高，而低階詞的借用率比高階詞高。本文第2節根據這一規律來釐清北京話入聲字中的早期遺存和晚近的借用成分，並藉以說明這一規律在語言演變研究中的重要作用。本文第3節比較了幾種影響較大的基本詞彙表──Dolgopolsky(1964)15詞，Yakhontov35詞和Swadesh(1955)100詞，觀察它們在漢語方言分區中的功效，發現根據Swadesh(1955)100詞得出的結果更可信。同時，複合詞應該從基本詞中剔除的看法得到了驗證。

Swadesh (1952, 1955) proposed using basic-word lists for his studies in glottochronology. We have used these same lists to investigate language evolution. Chen (1996) distinguished two subgroups in Swadesh’s 200-word list, placing half of the words in a high rank and half in a low rank; see §2 High-rank words are more stable through time and less likely to be loanwords; borrowed elements tend to occur more frequently among low-rank words. This characteristic of the Swadesh list can be usefully exploited to distinguish lexical retentions from borrowings; this kind of tool can be particularly useful when the evolution of a language has been affected by language contact, as was the case in the development of Middle Chinese entering tones in Pekinese. Finally we compare Dolgopolsky (1964)’s 15-word list, Yakhontov’s 35-word list, and Swadesh, and conclude that Swadesh (1955)’s 100 basic words (high rank) are best for sub-grouping Chinese dialects.