试论“很”作为形容词义项鉴定字的现实意义----从能受“很”修饰的一般动词谈起

The Practical Significance of “很 (Very)” as an Identifier of Adjectives:----Discussing from “很 (Very)”Modifying Plain Verbs

The paper starts from cases of “很 (very)”modifying plain verbs. Essentially,“很 (very)”is an identifier of adjectives with very few exceptions. However, as language changes, there appear more and more cases in which“很 (very)”modifies plain verbs. Does it mean that the grammatical function of “很 (very)”has changed? In the Modern Chinese Dictionary, there are many verbs modified by “很”. Are these verbs real verbs? One problem of the Modern Chinese Dictionary is the inconsistency of the standards of POS (part of speech) tagging. There are many contradictions in identifying whether some words modified by “很” are verbs or adjectives, which leads to a blur boundary of verbs and adjective. What’s more, admitting verbs can be modified by “很” will result in negating the existing of verb-adjective multi-class words. However, if “很” is consistently taken as the identifier of adjectives, there would be no existence of cases in which “很” modifies verbs. The problem with the annotation of the Modern Chinese Dictionary suggests that “很” modifying verbs is subjective rather that a change in the grammatical function of “很”. If words that can be modified by “很” are tagged a separately adjective item, the ambiguity of adjectives and verbs would be canceled and the existing grammar rules can be complied, which is of practical significance to language theory and language teaching.

本文是针对“很”修饰一般动词的情况展开的。“很”原本可以作为形容词的鉴定字存在，例外较少。但随着语言中“很”修饰一般动词的情况越来越多，这是否说明“很”的语法功能发生了变化？《现代汉语词典》中有大量动词能被“很”修饰，这些动词真的都是动词吗？事实上，《现汉》在词性标注上存在许多标准不一致的问题，特别是在对受“很”修饰的词语是形容词还是动词的判定上有许多矛盾的地方，人为导致动词和形容词界限不清。而且，如果承认动词能被“很”修饰，也会导致对动词和形容词的兼类词的否定。而如果始终将“很”视为形容词（或形容词义项）鉴定字，语言中就不存在“很”修饰动词的情况。《现汉》释义中存在的问题说明“很”修饰动词的说法只是一种人为的观念的产物，而并非“很”的语法功能发生了变化。如果改变这种观念，将能受“很”修饰的词语分立形容词义项，会使得动词和形容词遵循既有的语法规则存在，对语言理论和语言教学与研究都是有重要的现实意义的。