现代汉语虚指的“他”的来源

“他”在现代汉语中有一种虚指用法，它出现在动词后，但既无指代作用，又不是动词的宾语，同常见的作第三人称代词和旁指代词“他”的用法很不相同。通过对“他”的主要用法的历时考察，我们看到，虚指的“他”在唐代产生，它与第三人称代词“他”都是由旁指代词“他”演变而来。“他”的虚化来自于两方面原因。一是由于“他”原本是旁指代词，就词汇意义而言，旁指代词本身有淡化作用；二是由于唐代“他＋N”结构的影响，因为后面N的存在，使“他”在表意上成为一个可以忽略的成分，在结构上成为一个悬空成分。在这两方面的作用下“他”开始虚化。

Origin of Void Reference "Ta" in Modern Chinese

"Ta" in void-referring usage in modern Chinese after verb as neither reference nor object is quite different from the third person pronoun or other-referring pronoun.Through a diachronic study to the main usages of "ta",we can see that it emerges in the Tang Dynasty and both the void "ta" and the third person pronoun evolves from other-referring."Ta" becomes void for reasons of two aspects.Firstly "ta" originally is an other-referring pronoun which itself has a weakening effect in lexical meaning.Secondly,influenced by the Tang Dynaty "ta N" structure where,because of the existence of N,"ta" becomes an element that can be overlooked semantically and mal-connected structurally.Affected by the two influences "ta" begins to be void.