郭象(c.252-312)「自生」、「獨化」為魏晉玄學之重要觀念。它們多被理解為否定造物來源、不同於《莊子》思想。然若從《莊子》角度觀之，可發現《莊子》義理中具有可稱為「自生」、「獨化」的觀念，可提供理解「自生」、「獨化」之新的參考角度。概言之，《莊子》對「物」之生成變化的理解是，因物之源的「道」非「物」，故「道」與「物」之間的關係特殊，並非「物」這個層次的生成、支配關係，故追究「物」之根源時，無法找出其他「物」做為其根源。且在「物」的層次看，既以「道」為根源，則非由其他「物」使之生成、變化。故由此可說「物」是自生、獨化、自然、自爾。此可見由《莊子》義理理解「自生」、「獨化」之可能性，亦可做為瞭解《莊子》及魏晉思想之參考。

This paper aims to investigate the syntactic mechanisms behind the grammaticalization and lexicalization of saying verbs from the perspectives of linguistic typology and comparative syntax. It is proposed that, in addition to the evolution from lexical categories to functional categories along the clausal spine, there is also a mechanism that merges the verb shuo 說 ‘say’ into a neighboring phrase/clause, which is in turn reanalyzed as either an adverbial or a complement depending on its morpho-syntactic makeups. To use an idiom, this means that “It is easier to touch the moon at a pavilion near the waterfront.” The result is a plethora of usages such as quotative, clause-typing, evidential, subjunctive, concessive, topicmarking, and enumerative. They show up at various levels of syntactic structure, while heading the corresponding functional projections. At the final stage of its evolution, shuo may undergo extreme semantic bleaching and become a linker, which very often can be dropped freely. We substantiate this observation by drawing evidence from Classical Chinese, Formosan languages, and the grammaticalization of shi 是 ‘be’ in Modern Mandarin, which can be seen as an excellent example of convergent evolution.

Guo Xiang 郭象; Zhuangzi; zisheng 自生; duhua 獨化; dao 道 and wu 物; Wei-Jin philosophy