Abstract:

As the essence of the Chinese language, four-character idioms are the crystallization of traditional use by the Chinese people. The integrity of their meaning and the solidification of their structure seem to be conventionalized. However, with the dynamic evolution of the Chinese language, its four-character idioms should not be considered to be the unchangeable “antique” in language expressions, but as the unique “living fossil” of traditional Chinese culture, since these idioms have already developed with prominent elasticity and enormous potentiality for change. Grounded on the view put forward by Wang Wenbin that Chinese language possesses the trait of spatiality, this paper focuses on the special and complicated language unit of Chinese four-character idioms. What has been observed is that four-character idioms are characterized by chunkiness and discreteness. Their chunkiness can be revealed by their inner components being orderly spread, parallel combined and chunkily integrated when they are componentially analyzed, and being independently lumpy, relatively juxtaposed and flexibly disconnected while used as a whole in a sentence. Their discreteness can be demonstrated by the feature of elasticity: being separable, insertable, order-exchangeable and substitutable. The chunkiness and the discreteness actually accommodate each other and interact with each other as both cause and effect, thereby making the trait of the spatiality of Chinese quite conspicuous.

Keywords: Chinese; four-character idioms; spatiality; chunkiness; discreteness

摘要：

四字格成语是汉语的精华,是汉民族长期沿用的结晶,其意义的整体性和结构的凝固性似乎业已俗成。然而,随着汉语的动态演进,四字格成语不应该被视为语言表达中一成不变的“老古董”,而是堪称中华传统文化中独具特色的语言“活化石”,且其本身早已蕴含显著的弹性张力和巨大的变化潜力。本文立论于王文斌提出的汉语具有空间性特质这一观点,聚焦汉语四字格成语这一特殊而又复杂的语言单位。研究发现：四字格成语具有块状性和离散性。前者主要表现为其内部各成分间的铺排展陈、平列组合、块状拼接以及整体运用时的单独成块、相对并立、自由灵活;后者则具体彰显于可拆分、可插入、可换序、可替换四个方面的张弛有度、收放自如、离合延展。块状性和离散性彼此包含、互为因果、相互关联、层层递进,充分显示出汉语四字格成语的空间性特质。

关键词: 汉语, 四字格成语, 空间性, 块状性, 离散性