副词“在”从哪里来

论题试图从“NP+在+处所词+VP”结构的语法分析、“在”的历史演变和“在”的方言用法三个方面论证副词“在”是从介词“在”衍生而来的.演变的轨迹似乎是:从唐代开始,人们用“在这(那)里+ VP”表达在这(那)里某种动作正在进行,由于其在口语当中被大量经常地使用,出于表达简洁的需要,在长期使用当中“这(那)里”逐渐脱落,至近现代形成“在+ VP”的表达正在进行的副词用法.

The Evolvement of the Preposition "Zai"

In modern Chinese,"Zai" is a preposition introducing places as well as an adverb expressing the progressive tense.But texts from the Pre-Qin to the Qing Dynasty showed that Chinese ancients never used "Zai" to express that something is in progress.Based on the analysis of the grammatical structure "NP+’Zai’+Place + VP" and the historical evolution of "Zai" and its usage in Chinese dialects,this thesis aims at proving that the adverb "Zai" is a derivative of the preposition "Zai".The evolvement track may be: from the Tang Dynasty,people began to use "’Zai Zhe(Na) Li’ + VP",which means doing something here/there,to express some ongoing action.Due to its large number of regular oral use and people’s preference of using it more simply,the structure "’Zai Zhe(Na) Li’ + VP" developed to the structure "Zai + VP" gradually by dropping "Zhe(Na) Li"(here/there) and finally the adverb "Zai" was formed to express the progressive tense.