上古漢語和原始漢藏語動詞清濁別義的前綴詞頭──再論 *s- 與 *N- 的構擬

Valence-Changing Prefixes and Voicing Alternation in Old Chinese and Proto-Sino-Tibetan: Reconstructing *s- and *N- Prefixes

中古漢語動詞聲母清濁別義的現象，例如：“張＂和“長～短＂，被認為是上古音或者更早構詞現象的反映。這種清濁別義的現象，有的學者認為其上古音的來源是起濁化作用的去及物性前綴 *N-，也有的學者認為是起清化作用的使動化前綴 *s-。本文總結介紹來自漢語內部的證據和來自比較語言學的證據，以及學者就這兩種假設提出的最新的意見。由於這兩方面假設都不能令人完全滿意，本文作者根據以上材料進一步提出新的看法，認為上古漢語時期可能有不同的構詞過程並存，但各種詞綴不一定都同時具備構詞能力，有的到了上古時期可能已經失去了構詞能力。

A voicing alternation in the Middle Chinese pronunciation of the initial consonant of Chinese verbs has long been recognized as the reflection of a morphological process dating to the Old Chinese period or earlier. As illustrated by the pair of words zhāng 張 (MC trjang) ‘to stretch (trans.)’ : cháng 長 (MC drjang) ‘to be long (intrans.)’, this morphological process is associated with transitive/intransitive word pairs. There is disagreement among historical phonologists about whether this alternation should be attributed to a detransitivizing nasal voicing prefix *N- or to a causativizing sibilant devoicing prefix *s-. In this paper I summarize the internal and comparative evidence and review the recent arguments put forth by specialists in support of both views, and conclude that both explanations are not entirely satisfactory. I propose that further research must consider the possibility that several processes were at work, and that productive and frozen morphological processes may have co-existed with analogical leveling at various points before and during the Old Chinese period.