不是說「說」而已──談語法化中的句法驅動機制

本文從語言類型學及比較句法的視角出發，深入探討言說動詞語法化和詞匯化背後的句法驅動機制：我們認為動詞虛化除了由低而高、由實而虛的演化路徑之外，還有一種「近水樓臺先得月」的現象，亦即「說」由主句併入從句，並依其結構性質重析為狀語標記或是補語標記；其結果就是百花齊放，蛻變出引語、標句、示證、虛擬、讓步、話題、列舉等用法，滲透進句子骨幹上的各個層級，成為功能投射（functionalprojections）的中心語。在最後階段，還可能經由語意淡化而成為連結詞，產生自由脫落的現象。這點我們從古漢語、臺灣南島語以及現代漢語的「是」字結構上都取得了實質的印證，亦可視為趨同演化的絕佳範例。

This paper aims to investigate the syntactic mechanisms behind the grammaticalization and lexicalization of saying verbs from the perspectives of linguistic typology and comparative syntax. It is proposed that, in addition to the evolution from lexical categories to functional categories along the clausal spine, there is also a mechanism that merges the verb shuo說‘say’into a neighboring phrase/clause, which is in turn reanalyzed as either an adverbial or a complement depending on its morpho-syntactic makeups. To use an idiom, this means that“It is easier to touch the moon at a pavilion near the waterfront.”The result is a plethora of usages such as quotative, clause-typing, evidential, subjunctive, concessive, topicmarking, and enumerative. They show up at various levels of syntactic structure, while heading the corresponding functional projections. At the final stage of its evolution, shuo may undergo extreme semantic bleaching and become a linker, which very often can be dropped freely. We substantiate this observation by drawing evidence from Classical Chinese, Formosan languages, and the grammaticalization of shi是‘be’in Modern Mandarin, which can be seen as an excellent example of convergent evolution.