The semantic and syntactic differences between 至于 and 至於 in Warring States period texts = 戰國文獻裡出現的'至于'、'至於'的語意上、語法上的差異

Abstract

This paper supports and extends the results of previous studies, such as Pulleyblank (1986) and Chang (2012), that argue that the choice of 于 or 於 in Classical Chinese is not random, but rather is conditioned by the features of the preceding verb. Through a close examination of the cooccurrence of 于 and 於 with the high-frequency verb 至 in six Warring States period texts, it is shown that additional semantic and syntactic factors influence the choice between the two. Semantically speaking, while both 至于 and 至於 occur followed by a noun indicating a place, a time, or a person—all of which can be described as [+concrete] goals—it is only 至於 that occurs followed by a degree, result, or extent, which can be described as [-concrete] goals. The [-concrete] goals that appear as objects of 至於 include a near demonstrative pronoun 此, a noun (including an abstract noun) or noun phrase, a verb phrase, and even a sentence. Syntactically speaking, only 至於+ Noun appears in nominalized contexts in complex syntactic structures, such as before a nominalizer 者, before or after a relativizer 所, and as a head noun after a possessive/attributive marker 之. These findings provide additional support for the claim that 于 and 於 represent distinct lexical items, with distinct semantic feature sets, in Classical Chinese. 提要: 本文經過調查戰國文獻裡出現的'至于'和'至於'的例子來證明它們 肯定有語意上、語法上的差異. 在語意上, 只有'至於'後邊出現表示 程度或者結果的成分. 表示程度或者結果的成分包括近指代詞 '此', 名詞句(包括抽象名詞), 動詞句, 甚至連主謂結構都可以出現在'至於' 的後邊表示 達到這樣的程度或者結果. 在語法上, 只有 '至於' 在複雜的語法結構裡出現. 複雜的語法結構就是說含有名詞化標記 '者' 、 '所' 、 '之' 等的句子. 以前, 作者曾經主張過'于' 或 '於'的選擇常常跟前邊的動詞的性質來決定. 本文強調'于' 或 '於'的選擇不但跟前邊的動詞的性質有關, 而且跟後邊的名詞的性質 和'于' 或 '於'出現的句子的語法結構有關.