中文多義近義詞之語意延伸

Abstract

多義詞(polysemy)的語意延伸(semantic extension)和近義詞(near-synonyms)在認知語言學和詞彙語言學是兩個重要的議題，目前已有許多的理論和方法研究大量相關的語料並且穫得相當大的進展。然而，經由文獻探討，我們發現這兩個議題之間的關聯並沒有很多人去討論，因此本文採用語料庫基礎之研究方法來探討兩組多義的近義詞，從而分析近義詞與語義延伸的關聯。本文的語料主要取自中研院平衡語料庫，而Google搜尋引擎則做為語料參考來源。 「出生」和「誕生」是第一組分析的近義詞，這組近義詞的語義延伸是牽涉到概念隱喻(conceptual metaphor)。分析這組近義詞的語料，我們首先發現「出生」和「誕生」都可和語義是「嬰兒」(infant)的主語一起出現，但是進一步分析卻發現「誕生」可以「隱喻引申」(metaphorical extension)，但「出生」不行。為了解釋這兩個動詞語義差異的現象，我們以詞彙為基礎來說明為什麼「誕生」可以依據「人>具體事物>抽象事物」這樣的順序投映到抽象的領域。這樣的假設背後的意含在於，當討論隱喻理論時，我們必須把詞彙間的語意差異也納入考量，這樣才能解釋像「出生」和「誕生」這組近義詞的語義延伸的問題。因此，我們進一步提出「詞彙差異化」(lexical differentiation)的原則，來解釋出生語義較限制於生物出生的過程，而誕生語義的範圍較廣，因此才導致語義延伸不一致的現象。 「表示」、「表達」和「表露」是第二組分析的近義詞，這組近義詞的語義延伸是牽涉到框架語義學(frame semantics)，從基本結構(basic pattern)來分析，我們發現「表示」可以出現在「陳述性框架」(Statement Frame)、「編訊類框架」(Encoding Frame)和「意指性框架」(Evidence Frame)，「表達」只能出現在「編訊類框架」和「意指性框架」，而「表露」只允許出現在「編訊類框架」。為了解釋這三個動詞語義差異的現象，我們指出了框架到框框間轉換的假設和讓一個動詞從一個框架移動到另一個框假所需的概念基模要求，並且進一步提出「框架代表性」(frame-representativity)的原則，說明「表示」做為「來源領域」(source domain)最具代表性的一個詞彙，因此可以從「陳述性的框架」延展到其他的框架。 藉著分析多義近義詞，我們可以進一步研究隱喻引申及框假為本的兩種語義延伸機制，同時當語義延伸的研究對象從單一詞彙擴展到近義詞時，我們更能得到更多的發現與進展。最後，本文開啟了對近義詞與多義詞語義延伸關聯性的研究新方向，我們希望這樣的研究能拉進這兩個領域的距離。

Semantic extension of polysemy and near-synonyms are two important issues in the fields of cognitive linguistics and lexical semantics. Lots of theories and methodologies have been used to explore a huge amount of data and which have achieved great contributions. However, the relationship between the two issues is rarely discussed. This thesis aims to explore the relationship between near-synonyms and semantic extension by examining two sets of polysemous near-synonyms with a corpus-based approach. Two on-line resources were used in this work: Sinica Corpus as the main data source and Google as an assisting reference. The near-synonym set chusheng and dansheng is first investigated in terms of their semantic extensions which involves conceptual metaphor. When analyzing the data of the set of near-synonym, it is found that the near-synonymous pair can co-occur with a subject NP carrying the sense of “Infant”, but dansheng is less constrained in its metaphorical extension than chusheng. To explain the different semantic range between the two verbs, the lexical-based rule is proposed to illustrate why dansheng can be mapped onto the abstract domain, in the direction: Person>Physical Entity>Abstract Entity. This means that metaphorical theories will have to take into consideration the lexical semantic distinctions of near-synonymous verbs in applying metaphorical extensions. Furthermore, chusheng is limited to the biological birth of animate entities only and often collocates with time and place, indicating its highly restricted meaning in naming the natural, biological process of genealogical birth. Compared with the more flexible and less-restricted dansheng, chusheng is highly specialized in its core meaning and thus constrained from further functional extension. Contrary to lexical diffusion, lexical differentiation in semantic specification is at play in this case. The near-synonym set biaoshi, biaoda and biaolu is investigated in terms of their semantic extensions which involves frame semantics. Based on the analysis of basic patterns, it is found that biaoshi exists in the Statement, Encoding and Evidence frames, biaoda in the Encoding and Evidence frames, and biaolu in the Evidence frame. The polysemous development among the three verbs is explained in terms of the hypotheses about the frame-to-frame transferring and the conceptual schema requirement for triggering the individual verb in a frame to be transferred into another frame. Furthermore, among the three verbs, only biaoshiI is a fully representative member of the source domain, i.e., the Statement frame, and thus capable of being extended to other domains, i.e., the Encoding and the Evidence frames. Here, lexical membership in the source frame or frame-representativity is the key to semantic extension. By examining polysemous near-synonyms in great detail, we can further investigate the operational process of the two semantic extension mechanisms. With the focus shifting from single lexical items to near-synonyms, we will be able to get more findings and contributions. Finally, this work sheds new light on the new researching area about the relationship between near-synonyms and semantic extension of polysemy. It ultimately helps to bridge the gap between these two areas and to restore the missing pieces.