全浊声母清化的现代音系理论解析*

摘要

The Simplification of Chinese initials is a salient change from the middle ancient times to the recent antiquity, which mostly caused by the devoicing of the fully voiced initials. Although the devoicing of the fully voiced initials has a universal law, yet this devoicing has no influence over the semi-voiced initials. Through the theory of markedness and the theory of distinctive feature, we can find that the fully voiced initials are obstruents, but the semi-voiced initials are sonorants. The devoicing involves only [+voice] of the obstruents, not the [+voice] of the sonorants, which reflects the change from the marked to the unmarked.%　　汉语声母系统在由中古向近代的发展过程中，一个突出的变化就是简化。这种简化主要是由于全浊声母的清化造成的。全浊声母的清化，虽然具有很强的规律性，却并没有影响同样具有浊音特征的次浊声母。通过标记理论和区别特征理论分析，可以看出，全浊音清化只涉及阻塞音中的[+浊音]特征，而不涉及响音中的[+浊音]特征，即全浊声母清化的实质是由有标记项向无标记项的转变。