從原型理論來看日文分類詞「－－本」──母語者與學習者對原型性判定的異同

Testing for Prototypicality: L1 and L2 Japanese Speakers` Judgments of Classifier hon

日語的分類詞「─本（ホン）」基本上用來歸類具有細長特質的東西，包括鉛筆、手指、罐裝果汁、電線桿等等。除此之外，「─本」也可與抽象的概念共用，比如用來指劍道或柔道等的勝負招數或足球的射門。然而，對於日語使用者而言，上述例子並非都具有等量的原型性（prototypicality）或代表性（representativeness）。比如說，如果舉例來說明「─本」的用法，對很多人來說，「鉛筆」和「射門」二者之間，顯然前者是個較好的例子，比後者更容易表現出分類詞「一本」所具有的原型細長概念。本文主要是從原型理論（Prototype Theory）來探討這些名詞所具有的原型性。本實驗共有86位日本學生和70位臺灣的日文系學生參與。實驗中要求所有參與者比較上下各一的名詞組，並判定哪一個在分類詞「一本」的使用上是比較好的例子。依照兩個實驗組所得判定的結果，各組成一個十等級的排名。本文旨在比較母語者和學習者對原型性判定的異同。結果顯示，第一，母語者和學習者都認為在分類詞「一本」的使用上，比起抽象的概念，具體的東西是比較好的例子。第，在極好（如具體物品「鉛筆」）和極差（如抽象概念「勝負招數」）的例子上，雙方有極大的共識，至於介在中間的例子，母語者和學習者間對原型性的認定有相當大的差異。第三，母語者對於名詞之間原型性的差異認知遠較日語學習者來得清楚、明顯。相對的，學習者的判定結果顯得模糊。各名詞間的原型性差異不大，區別不明顯。本文提出了幾個假設來說明這些結果。

Rosch (1973) introduced the “prototype” as a theory of categorization. The same prototype effects that are evident in nonlinguistic categorization have also been described in linguistic phenomena. The purpose of this study is to compare prototypicality judgments of nouns that go with Japanese classifier hon by native speakers and Chinese learners. The data were collected by forced-choice preference tests. The subjects consisted of 70 Chinese learners and 86 Japanese L1 speakers. In the experiment, the subjects judged which of the paired nouns was the better example for the use of hon. The preliminary analyses resulted in several findings. First, both L1 and L2 subjects consider concrete basic objects more typical or better examples than abstract items. Second, substantial agreement occurs for exemplars that are very good or very poor category members, whereas there is substantial disagreement among the subjects for items with intermediate degrees of membership. Third, the L1 speakers’ prototypicality judgments are more distinct and widely spread out than those of the L2 speakers. Several explanations are postulated for these findings.