上海话后置词“辣海”小议 — 兼谈体现象和处所义表达的关系

Abstract

“Lahai(辣海)” is one of the most distinctive word in Shanghai dialect. It has many meanings. As a postpositon, it expresses the continuation of action or state. It can mean “here” or “there”. Sometimes it can also be used to express some of the mood. The “la(辣)” of “lahai(辣海)” is similar to the “zai(在)” of Mandarin verbs or prepositions , while “hai(海)” is the constituent element of expressing a place. It shows that “V+lahai(辣海)+处所+O” structure is incorrect because it has not been completely grammaticalized. “hai(海)” also means “here” or “there”. Therefore, the words indicating the meaning of place cannot be followed by. However, the fact that “lahai(辣海)” can bring objects shows that the degree of grammaticalize of “hai(海)” has been relatively high. Through studying the source of “lahai(辣海)”, we found that the former Shanghainese also used a word “lahai(垃壗)” similar to “lahai(辣海)”, although this kind of usage was not common. Perhaps because of the influence of the surrounding dialects, Shanghai dialect also use the same font of “lahai(辣海)” as Suzhou dialect. In the process of grammaticalization, “lahai(辣海)” gradually evolved into an individual aspect marker, which can indicate the continuity of action or state, the progress of action. It can also express a mood. The postpositional word “lahai(辣海)” has a close relationship with the meaning of place, which can not only be confirmed in Shanghai dialect. But also in Wu dialect areas around Shanghai, and in other dialect areas, similar expressions can also be found. This shows us the law of the development in language that, in which words with locative meaning are closely related to continuous aspect markers. In addition to “lahai(辣海)” expressing “Aspect” and “Tense”, it also expresses a Mood when it is placed as a modal particle at the end of a sentence, which reflects the close relationship between the grammatical TAM.