台灣南島語「說」動詞語義現象初探

On the Semantics of SAY Verbs in Formosan Languages

台灣南島語「說」動詞語義呈現兩點類型學上獨特之處。首先，台灣南島語「說」動詞的多義現象不單是述說語義場的語義延伸，更從「述說」跨到「認知」的多義現象。再者，除了布農、鄒、卡那卡那富及拉阿魯哇語，其餘12個台灣南島語「說」動詞語義本質均同時具有述說義及另一個語義：「如此」、「像」、「做」、或「去」。本文倡議台灣南島語「說」動詞原本是語義較為廣泛的施為動詞X，其在本質上即同時具有「說」與「做」的語義成份。且因經常與直接引述句共現，為此施為動詞增添了「模仿性」與「指示性」語義成分。接著各語言的X動詞各自演化為具有不同語義成份的「說」動詞，如，邵語zai同時具有「述說」、「如此」、「像」；賽夏語Sa'同時具有「述說」、「去」。最後則是各語言的「說」動詞進一步語法化為補語標記、示證標記，或／和言談標記。

Formosan SAY verbs have two typological characteristics in semantics. First, all Formosan SAY verbs display both intrafield and interfiled semantic extensions. Second, many Formosan SAY verbs are encoded with two or more features: say-deictic, say-similative, say-do, or say-go. This study proposes that Formosan SAY verbs were performative verbs X with general meanings, and are intrinsically of both 'saying' and 'doing' semantic features. Moreover, Verbs X have been frequently found to co-occur with direct quotations, which added mimeticity and deicticity to Verbs X. Afterwards, Verb X in each language evolved into SAY verbs with different semantic features, e.g., Thao zai is of saying, deictic, and simulative features; Saisiyat Sa' is of saying and going. Finally, SAY verbs embarked separately on the grammaticalization of complementizers, evidential markers, or/and discourse markers in each language. The findings may shed lights on the typological studies of SAY verbs in Formosan languages and in Austronesian languages as well.