【作者】 曹火群；

【导师】 王德春；

【作者基本信息】 上海外国语大学 ， 外国语言学及应用语言学， 2009， 博士

【摘要】 题元角色是谓词所描述的事件或状态中的参与者角色。若对题元角色追根寻源,可以追溯到公元前4-6世纪之间著名的印度语言学家Pānini的kārakas(语义角色),但对题元关系进行较系统的研究的是Gruber。Gruber(1965)的题元关系与Fillmore(1968)的格语法中的深层格相对应;Jackendoff(1972)将其处理为语义范畴。后来Chomsky(1981)则将θ-角色引进GB理论以揭示句法结构的语义基础,并以此将自然语言谓词的论元分类而形成一组封闭的参与者类型,这些参与者类型在句法中具有特定的位置。常见的题元角色包括施事、受事、客体、感事、受益者、工具、处所、目标、来源等。题元角色的研究自然离不开对论元的关注,因为论元是题元角色的载体,因此题元角色与论元关系密切。题元准则(θ-criterion)规定每个题元角色分派给一个且只一个论元,每个论元承担一个且只一个题元角色。许多研究者对题元角色和题元关系不加区别,而Carnie(2002)认为题元角色是题元关系的集合,其中最突出的题元关系表示题元角色。由于传统题元角色的离散性导致数量不确定,给题元角色向句法论元的映射带来不便,Dowty(1991)提出了题元原型角色概念(Thematic Proto-Roles):原型施事(Proto-Agent)和原型受事(Proto-Patient)。Van Valin Jr. & Lappola(1997)提出了类似于题元原型角色的“抽象语义宏观角色”(Abstract Semantic Macrorole):行动元(Actor)和受动元(Undergoer)。当前对题元角色的研究存在的主要问题有:划分的精密度不同;题元角色的数量不确定,名称不统一;有些动词(如resemble/lack)和表示天气的动词(如rain/wind/snow)的题元角色也尚未确定。在研究中我们对这些动词的题元角色进行了分析和界定。题元角色具有元语言的功能,因此可用以描写词汇(主要是动词)语义。在语言的使用中,题元栅也会发生变化,及物动词的不及物用法和不及物动词的及物用法正是题元栅发生变化的结果。传统语法将及物和不及物绝对分开,认为及物动词带宾语,不及物动词不能带宾语;但语言事实并非如此,随着语言的演变,及物动词和不及物动词会互相转化。因此,及物性和不及物性不是绝对的非此即彼,它们之间存在一个连续体,及物性和不及物性都是就程度上而言的。动词题元栅变化的主要表现是题元栅的扩大和缩小,不及物动词带宾语或单及物动词变为双及物动词就是题元栅的扩大;及物动词不带宾语就是题元栅的缩小。引起题元栅变化的原因也有外部原因和内部原因,外部原因是使用者追求经济原则,内部原因是动词和名词之间的相互作用,使得动词吸宾语名词的意义,导致及物动词变为不及物动词,即题元栅的缩小;另一个内部原因是搭配的影响,如不及物动词带宾语,就是超常搭配,导致题元栅的扩大。关于映射问题,自Gruber(1965)和Fillmore(1968)分别对词汇关系和深层的语义格研究以来,人们发现动词语义角色和句法位置有着对应的关系,并开始探索二者之间的联接机制和联接制约条件,即映射理论。映射理论是关于语义和句法对应关系的语法理论。本研究认为题元角色向句法论元的映射可以分为“无标记映射”和“有标记的映射”。无标记映射是指一般的、常见的、习惯的、常规的映射。我们发现无标记映射所遵循的是等值类保存限制、显著性保存限制以及绝对映射规则和相对映射规则。一方面它强调的是题元角色和句法论元之间的常规对应;另一方面,它要求题元层级中的题元角色的显著性反映在句法结构中。例如,施事角色映射为主语,受事/客体映射为宾语,目标/处所映射为间接宾语,工具/来源映射为旁格(oblique)。而标记映射是指不常见的、特殊的、超常的映射,是在题元角色向句法论元映射的过程中在修辞创新驱动下所发生的偏离现象。在本研究中我们对“对称映射”、“象似映射”等无标记映射,以及“缺位映射”、“颠倒映射”、“构式中的非对称映射”等标记映射进行了分析和探索,并增补了“蒙受损失构式”。尽管许多研究者分别从不同的角度对语义-句法映射进行了研究,形成不同的映射理论及映射模式,但都有其不足之处。本研究在分析各种映射模式(“依据题元层级的映射模式”、“依据原型角色映射模式”、“语义分解映射模式”、“LMT映射模式”和“Wechsler的映射模式”)不足的基础上,建立较为全面的整合映射模式(Integrated Mapping Model)。整合映射模式是将题元层级和体层级相结合而形成的映射模式,该映射模式是在四种驱动机制(题元驱动、体驱动、象似驱动和修辞创新驱动)共同作用下而进行映射运作的。整合映射模式首先涉及的是语义层。语义层向论元结构的映射要接受“题元驱动”和“体驱动”的作用。题元驱动将语义层分解为事件或活动的参与者角色(题元角色),形成题元层级(如,施事>感事>客体/受事>目标/来源/处所);而体驱动则是将语义层分解为从事件内部的时间特征(持续性、反复性等)来量度事件的体角色(如,量度、路径、终点),形成体层级;其次,题元层级和体层级中的角色分别向论元结构映射时,受到各层级中角色的特征(数量、语义功能、显著性和量度等)限制,这些特征也随之被赋予论元结构的论元。然后论元向语法角色的映射分两个路向进行(语法角色所遵循的语法层级一般是:subject > direct object > indirect object > oblique):一是论元结构在“象似驱动”(象似驱动要求论元结构中的论元与句法结构中语法角色在数量、语义功能、显著性和量度方面象似)下映射为无标记句法结构;二是在修辞创新驱动(修辞创新驱动指语言使用者出于修辞的目的而使映射出现超常现象,产生零度偏离,是对语义的常规句法表征所进行的干预。)的作用下映射为有标记句法结构,该整合模式如下图所示。总之,本研究对题元角色理论进行了评析和补充,在总结各映射理论的基础上创立了整合映射模式。研究的价值体现在:便于语言学习者更好地掌握动词的语义角色、论元结构、以及语义和句法的接口;有助于自然语言的计算机处理。更多还原

【Abstract】 Thematic roles (θ-roles) are semantic roles, which refer to the participant roles in the events or states that predicates describe. The earliest source ofθ-roles can be traced back to kārakas (semantic roles) proposed by the world-famous linguist Pānini in about the 4-6th century B.C.. But it was Gruber who made a systematic research into thematic relations, which are in accordance with semantic deep cases of Fillmore’Case Grammar (1968), and Jackendoff (1972) termed them semantic categories. Years later Chomsky introducedθ-roles into GB theory to reveal the semantic basis of syntactic structures and classified inθ-role the arguments of predicates of natural language to form a group of closed types of participants, which had specific locations in the syntax. Conventionally,θ-roles refer to agent, patient, theme, experiencer, beneficiary, instrument, locations, goal, source, etc.We could not conduct any research intoθ-roles without any concern with arguments that are actually the carriers ofθ-roles, and the close relation between the two is manifested inθ-criterion which requires each argument to bear one and only oneθ-role, and eachθ-role to be assigned to one and only one argument (Chomsky1981:36). Generallyθ-roles and thematic relations are confusing and used interchangeably, and it is Carnie (2002) that made a clear distinction between the two:θ-role is a set of thematic relations of which the most prominent one indicates theθ-role.Considering the discreteness and the uncertainty in number of conventional thematic roles give rise to much inconvenience in the mapping between thematic roles and syntactic arguments, Dowty (1991) proposed Thematic Proto-Roles (i.e. Proto-Agent and Proto-Patient), which are similar to Abstract Semantic Macroroles: Actor and Undergoer suggested by Van Valin Jr. & Lappola (1997).Yet in the current research intoθ-roles still exist some problems, which are respectively the differences in the delicacy of the distinctions ofθ-roles, uncertainty in number, and non-uniformity in terminology; what’s more, there is still much necessity in definingθ-roles of some verbs (as resemble, lack, etc.) and the verbs involving weather (as rain, wind, snow, etc.), hence the exploration made into theθ-roles of such verbs in this dissertation.The author of this dissertation holds the belief thatθ-roles are characteristic of meta-language and can be employed for the description of lexical semantics. However, theθ-grid of a verb is changeable in alternation between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs with meaning unchanged. There is a clear cut between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs in traditional grammar following transitivity and intransitivity, namely, transitive verbs with objects and intransitive verbs without any objects. But it is not the case in natural language. With the evolution of language, both transitive verbs and intransitive verbs are changeable, which indicates transitivity is relative to intransitivity and vice versa, and there exists a continuum between them. The change ofθ-grid includes augmentation and minification. The change ofθ-grid results in external and internal motivations: the external one is the language user’s pursuit of the simplicity under the economic principles of language, and the internal one is the interaction between verbs and nouns, which makes transitive verbs intransitive because of verbs’absorption of the meaning of nouns, hence the minification ofθ-grid. Another internal motivation, relating to abnormal collocation, say, intransitive verbs with objects leads to the augmentation ofθ-grid.With regard to mapping issues, from the research into lexical relations and semantic cases respectively made by Gruber(1965)and Fillmore(1968),it is found that there exists a correspondence between lexical semantic roles and syntactic locations, therefore number of explorations from different researchers are made into the linking mechanism and the constraints on linking between them, i.e. the mapping theories. Mapping theory is essentially a grammar theory on the corresponding relationship between semantics and syntax. Mappings between semantics and syntax fall into two categories in this dissertation: unmarked mapping and marked mapping. Unmarked mappings refer to general, common, and conventional mapping which follows equivalence class preservation constraints, prominence preservation constraints, absolute mapping algorithm and relative mapping algorithm. On the one hand, unmarked mappings lay much stress on the normal correspondence betweenθ-roles and syntactic arguments; on the other hand, it requires the prominence relations amongθ-roles in the thematic hierarchy to be manifested in syntax. For instance, agent is usually realized as subject, patient/theme realized as object, goal/location as indirect object, and instrument/source as oblique. Marked mappings refers to the unusual, special and abnormal mappings, which are deviated ones occurring in the mapping ofθ-roles and syntactic arguments under rhetorical innovation motivation. In this research, analysis and explorations are made into unmarked mappings including argument-absent mapping, inversed mapping, and asymmetric mapping in construction. Furthermore, the author proposed Suffer-Lose construction.Although many linguists have conducted research into the mapping between semantics and syntax from different perspectives and established different mapping theories and mapping models, each has still something to be desired. Based on the analysis of the defectives of such mapping theories (mapping based on thematic hierarchy, mapping based on thematic proto-roles, mapping based on semantic decomposition, lexical mapping theory, and Wechsler’s mapping model), this research has established Integrated Mapping Model which exerts its mapping operations under four driven mechanisms (thematic-driven mechanism, aspectual-driven mechanism, iconicity-driven mechanism, and rhetorical-innovation-driven mechanism).Integrated Mapping Model gives top priority to semantics level. The mapping from semantics to argument structure is subject to thematic driven-mechanism and aspectual driven-mechanism. Thematic driven-mechanism decomposes semantics into different participant roles in the events or activities described by verbs, namely, thematic roles, which are ordered into a thematic hierarchy. Aspectual driven-mechanism decomposes semantics into the aspectual roles measuring an event, such as MEASURE, PATH and TERMINUS, measuring the event from its temporal attributes (duration, recurrence), which are ordered into an aspectual hierarchy. Secondly, the mapping from both thematic roles in thematic hierarchy and aspectual roles in aspectual hierarchy onto arguments in the argument structure is subject to the feature constraint (feature constraint refers to number feature constraint, semantic-function feature constraint, prominence feature constraint and measure feature constraint imposed by both thematic roles and aspectual roles on arguments.).Then the mapping from arguments onto grammatical roles follows two directions (grammatical roles are conventionally ordered into the hierarchy: subject > direct object > indirect object > oblique): one is that arguments are mapped onto the corresponding grammatical roles under the iconicity driven-mechanism (iconicity driven-mechanism requires the arguments in the argument structure (Arguments have already been assigned the features from both thematic and aspectual roles under the feature constraint.) to have iconicity in feature (number feature, semantic function feature, prominence feature and measure feature) with the grammatical roles) realized as unmarked syntactic structure; the other is that arguments are mapped onto the corresponding grammatical roles under rhetorical innovation driven-mechanism (Rhetorical innovation driven-mechanism usually leads to unusual mapping deviated from the normal mapping, which is aroused by language users in pursuit of rhetorical innovation and interference in normal syntactic representation of semantics.) realized as marked syntactic structure. Integrated Mapping Model is as follows:In a word, in this research, except the analysis and comment ofθ-role theory, some supplementation ofθ-role theory is also made. Based on summarizing the current mapping theories, Integrated Mapping Model is established. The findings in the research are conducive to language learner in mastery of lexical semantics, argument structure and the interface between semantics and syntax. On the other hand, it is helpful to the computer-assisted processing of natural language.更多还原