三明方言屬於閩中方言的一種，閩中位於閩客過渡區域，有其重要而特 殊的地位。目前的閩中方言材料大抵詳於音韻而略於構詞與語法，然而不論 就構詞或語法而言，閩中方言都有值得深入探索的價值。本文根據我們前往 閩中三明市調查所得的材料，描寫三明方言中一個重要而常用的虛詞成分 「tʰe5」，並說明「tʰe5」的語法功能、來源及其語法化問題。根據我們的田 野調查，在三明方言［NP1-PREP-NP2-VP］這類結構中，「tʰe5」作為一個 介詞，至少有以下幾種語法功能：引介標的者、引介受益者、引介共同行為 者、引介施事者（亦即被動標記）與並列連詞。 本文首先從描述的角度全面地歸納三明方言「tʰe5」的語法功能。其 次，根據音韻規則對應，我們認為三明方言「tʰe5」的語源為蟹攝四等開口 的「替」。相較於漢語語法史的表現，三明方言中「替tʰe5」最為特殊的表 現在於從協同介詞發展為施事介詞。另一方面，三明方言的「替tʰe5」也從 引介共同行為者的介詞進一步虛化為並列連詞。本文同時也說明，當三明方 言中的「替tʰe5」由介詞虛化為連詞之後，連帶造成的效應，那就是並列名 詞組複數標記「tse0」的增生。

Sanming City locates in central Fujian Province, and the local dialect is a Central Min dialect. Due to its location in a transitional area of Min and Hakka dialects, the Sanming dialect has rich phonological, lexical and grammatical features. This paper describes an important function element ‘tʰe5’ in Sanming dialect, and investigates the grammaticalization progress of ‘tʰe5’. In the linear structure [NP1-PREP-NP2-VP] of Sanming dialect, the element ‘tʰe5’ is employed as a preposition and introduces different semantic NPs including: Beneficiary, Goal, Comitativity, and Agent. Furthermore, ‘tʰe5’ is also employed in NP conjunction.

This paper shows, based on phonological evidence, that the etymon of ‘tʰe5’ is ‘替’. It also shows that ‘tʰe5’ has undergone the following grammaticalization pathway:

 VERB       PREPOSITION     CONJUNCTION
‘replace’ > Beneficiary > Comitativity > NP conjunction
                           ↓                          ↓
                       Goa    l               Agent

This paper also deals with a related and interesting issue, which is the rise of the plural suffix ‘tse0’. I suggest that the rise of the plural suffix ‘tse0’ in Sanming is due to the grammaticalization of ‘tʰe5’.

閩中方言; 介詞; 語法化; 比較方法; 歷史語言學

Central Min; preposition; grammaticalization; comparative method; historical linguistics