賽夏語指示詞的句法、構詞與語意初探

A Preliminary Study on the Syntactic, Morphological and Semantic Properties of Demonstratives in Saisiyat

賽夏語有豐富的指示詞，依其形態可分兩組：第一組為帶’isa-這個成分的’isa:a’「那（裡）」、’isaza「那（裡）」、’isani「這裡」、’isaso:「那（裡）」，第二組則為帶hi-或ha-的hini「這」、hiza「那」、hita「那邊」、hani「這裡」、hato「那邊」、hiSon「這邊」、haSon「那邊」。本文討論這些指示詞的句法分布、構詞與語意，發現就句法層面而言，多數指示詞具有代名詞與限定詞的用法，帶’isa-成分的四個指示詞呈現副詞用法，且有些指示詞已發展出連貫句子的功能。就構詞形式與語意的對應而言，除了以-ni,-za做距離遠近區別（distance contrast）之外，賽夏語的指示詞還分別以hi-或ha-作了可見性（visibility）的區分。

Saisiyat, a Formosan language spoken in the north-western mountain area, possesses a variety of demonstratives. Morphologically, they can be divided into two groups on the base of whether they contain the morpheme 'isa- or not. The first group with 'isa- includes 'isa:a' ‘that; there', 'isaza ‘that; there', 'isani ‘this, here', and 'isaso: ‘there', while the second group contains those carrying hi- or ha- such as hini ‘this', hiza ‘that', hita ‘there', hani ‘here', hato ‘there', hiSon ‘here', haSon ‘there'. As shown above, these demonstratives are defined as proximal ‘this/here' or distal ‘that/there' and thus such definitions are difficult for the learners to grasp the use of them. In this paper, the morphology, syntax and semantics of these demonstratives are discussed. With respect to the relation between forms and meanings, Saisiyat makes a distinction not only between proximal and distal marked by -ni and -za respectively, but also distinguish visible from invisible by the morphemes hi- and ha-. As for syntactic functions, most demonstratives display multiple uses.