浅析汉语类词缀的起源 — 以“X人”族词为中心

An Analysis of the Origins of Chinese Quasi-Affixes - Focusing on the “X-人”

본 논문은 ‘X人’ 어휘를 구성하는 ‘人’에 대한 통시적 분석을 통해 준접사의 형성 과정을 고찰하였다. 선진 시대부터 ‘人’은 준접사화 경향을 보였으나, 한나라 시기에 이르러 그 기능이 안정되었다. 기본 어휘인 ‘人’의 준접사화로 인해 ‘家, 者, 匠, 士, 師, 員, 手, 民, 夫, 客, 生, 友’와 같은 많은 준접사가 생겨났으며, 이러한 준접사의 생성과 발전은 중국어 어휘의 다양성을 풍부하게 했을 뿐만 아니라 현대 중국어 어휘 혁신의 중요한 토대를 마련하였다.

This paper conducts a diachronic study of the quasi-affixation phenomenon of “人” in the “X人” word family. Through an analysis of the semantics and grammar of the “X人” structure, it is discovered that as early as the pre-Qin period, “人” began to exhibit tendencies toward quasi-affixation, although it had not yet fully matured. Over time, during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the position and function of “人” in compound words gradually stabilized. By the Han dynasty, this trend had reached maturity, resulting in a more fixed word formation pattern and grammatical function. Analysis of the “X人” structure across different periods reveals that “人” progressively became fixed at the end of these compounds, displaying a clear grammatical function as a marker of word class. Additionally, the increasing number of “X人” compounds indicates that “人,” as a quasi-affix, possessed a strong capacity for generating new words, a feature that peaked during the Han dynasty. From ancient times to the present, the meaning of “人” in the “X人” structure has gradually become more generalized and abstract, extending its usage from denoting specific types of people to representing broader groups or concepts. This evolution signifies the gradual transformation of “人” from a lexical word into a quasi-affix. The quasi-affixation of “人” in Chinese represents a process where an initially latent trend gradually developed into a stable feature, with its positionality, stability, and productivity continuously reinforced through diachronic evolution, ultimately reaching maturity during the Han dynasty and continuing to play a significant role in modern Chinese. 本文是对“X人”族词中“人”的类词缀化现象的历时研究。通过对“X人”结构的语义和语法分析发现，早在先秦时期，“人”就开始显示出类词缀化的倾向，但尚未成熟。随着时间的推移，春秋战国时期“人”在复合词中的位置和功能逐渐稳定，到两汉时期，这一趋势达到了成熟，形成了较为固定的构词模式和语法功能。通过分析不同时期“X人”结构的构词情况，可以看出“人”在这些词中的位置逐步固定在词尾，并在语法功能上表现出明显的标注词性的特点。此外，“X人”类词的数量不断增加，表明“人”作为类词缀具备了生成新词的强大能力，这些特征在两汉时期达到顶峰。从上古到现代，“人”在“X人”结构中的语义逐渐泛化和抽象化，扩大了其使用范围，从表示具体的“某种人”发展到更为广泛的群体或概念。这一变化标志着“人”从实词逐步演变为类词缀。“人”在汉语中的类词缀化是一个由潜在趋势逐渐发展为稳定特征的过程，其定位性、稳定性和能产性在历时演变中不断强化，最终在两汉时期达到了成熟，并在现代汉语中继续发挥着重要作用。