COLOR POLYSEMY: BLACK AND WHITE IN TAIWANESE LANGUAGES

Abstract

This study profiles the polysemous nature of black and white expressions in Taiwanese Mandarin, Taiwanese Hakka, and Taiwanese Southern Min. The literal meanings for both black and white are the most dominant whereby black and white serve attributive functions modifying their collocating head nouns. The opaqueness of the meaning of the expression correlates with the degree of lexicalization. Some usages are compositional with the combinations metonymically projecting to the whole expressions. Some usages are metaphorically extended, leading to versatile nuances in meaning. These extensions give rise to different connotations and inter-cultural and intra-cultural variations. In addition, the analysis reveals that Taiwanese Mandarin has developed the most prolific usages of black and white expressions, followed by Taiwanese Southern Min, and Taiwanese Hakka.

本論文運用多樣語料來源探討顏色詞「黑/烏」與「白」用法在臺灣華語、臺灣客語以及臺灣閩南語中語意特徵及文化意涵。分析顯示「黑/烏」與「白」主要擔任定語修飾其共現的名詞，因此表示顏色之字面義也佔最多；延伸義與其與搭配詞詞彙化的程度呈現對應，詞彙化越深，語意越隱誨。隱喻延伸義鑲嵌于文化脈絡中，「黑/烏」表現負面與「白」表現正面之言外之意，在三個語言當中普遍地存在；然有些隱喻延伸義也表現跨文化或次文化之變異。此外，臺灣華語發展出最多的隱喻延伸，臺灣閩南語次之，而臺灣客語最少，此結果意涵臺灣語言顏色詞用法的蓬勃發展可能跟該語言的族群文化之孤立或偏僻程度有關，越孤立偏僻受外界影響越少，相對語言用法發展也越保守。