【作者】 田臻；

【导师】 束定芳；

【作者基本信息】 上海外国语大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2009， 博士

【摘要】 本文从汉语静态存在句中动作动词的出现及其语义偏离现象入手,以认知语义学的基本观点为指导,主要在Goldberg构式语法理论的框架下研究动作动词与静态存在构式之间的关系,探寻该构式对动词的语义选择条件,从而为动作动词与该构式的“语义相容性”提供解释。其中动作动词的语义分析主要以Fillmore的框架语义学和Talmy的运动事件框架及词汇化理论为基础,主要目的是找到在这些动词中得到词汇化的(即与动词表达的核心事件有固定关联的)事件语义成分之间存在的共性,从而为分析这些动词表达的事件与存在构式表达的存在事件之间的关联打下基础。在操作层面上,本文采用了定量和定性相结合的研究方法,通过一定规模的语料统计和分析来确定动词所对应的事件类型、事件框架及其包含的事件元素的特点,从而对本文的初步假设进行验证和相应的修改。汉语存在(现)句从上世纪50年代以来逐渐受到国内语言学者的关注。各学派纷纷用不同的理论和研究方法针对存在(现)句所涉及的一系列问题进行研究,包括句首是主语还是主题的问题、名词不确定性的问题、句子语用功能的问题、修辞功能问题等,取得了丰硕的研究成果。但是这些研究并未解决存在句中的所有问题。通过与英语存在(现)句的对比可清楚地发现,汉语静态存在句中出现的动作动词不仅数量更多,而且语义类型分布也更广。及物动作动词的出现使得汉语存在句的语义更加复杂。然而,在先前的研究中人们普遍认为存在句中动词的地位较弱,对句子的整体含义并未起到明显的影响,这使得汉语存在动词的研究相对受到忽视。静态存在句中动作动词的出现和语义偏离问题,一直都没有得到合理的解释。本文就此问题对几个主要的研究思路进行考察后发现,采用构式理论对汉语存在句进行研究具有明显的优越性,这表现在:1)句子论元结构的产生问题。由于句子的论元结构是由构式提供的,那么存在句的句式结构“NPL+V+着+NP”是该构式特有的,而并非由动词的论元结构转换而来。2)构式意义会对出现在其中的动词意义产生压制作用,使其出现词义的偏离,于是语义类型不同的动词在进入构式后都可以表达“某地有某物存在”的意义,从而产生了统一的静态义。当然,虽然在构式框架下研究汉语静态存在句有明显的优势,但该构式的生成局限性并没有得到足够的重视(如为何某些动作动词如“推”、“摘”、“捞”不能进入静态存在句),而且静态存在构式对动词的语义选择条件也没有得到充分的说明。针对这一问题,我们通过对动词语义特点的分析发现了解决问题的办法。动词主要对应于真实世界中的各种事件,其本身普遍具有非自足性,因此对动词意义的理解和界定必然涉及事件框架中的各种元素。这一点在Fillmore的框架语义学中通过著名的“商业交换事件”中得到了充分的说明。Talmy对运动事件词汇化分析表明动词意义并不是一个密不可分的整体,每个动词都包含了事件框架中的不同元素组成的集合。然而动词意义对事件元素的包容并不是任意的,而是遵循着一定的规律性。而且Talmy的词汇化分析进一步说明动词意义对特定事件元素的系统性包容会影响其句法行为。据此,本文认为动词意义对于事件语义成分的包容对它与构式之间是否具有语义相容性有着重要的影响。本文对在目标动词中得到词汇化的(即与目标动词具有固定语义关联的)事件语义成分进行分析。这些语义成分主要体现为动词所表达事件中的参与成分,包括行为主体的类别和数量、行为发出部位、空间背景、路径起点、路径终点、行为的瞬间性、行为的过程性、作用力、速度、工具、行为客体的类别和数量、客体形状、客体排列、客体位移变化和客体性质变化这17个语义成分。为了对这些成分有更深入的了解,本文首先通过目标动词在语料中出现的主要句型来对这些动词表达的事件类型进行判断,然后再对动词表达的事件框架中的各项语义成分进行分析,归纳出其共性。通过分析,本文得出了如下结论:1)汉语动作动词对“存在事件”的表达与其表达“位移事件”可能性有重要的关系;2)汉语存在构式所容纳的动作动词描述的主要是具体的场景,其典型框架是“人类经过某种行为或活动使行为客体发生了状态变化的结果”;3)“空间背景”在目标动词意义中占据重要地位。4)事件描述关注事物变化的结果而非动作进行的过程。在此基础上,本文提出了汉语静态存在构式对动作动词的三个语义限制条件:1)该动作动词必须具有很强的动作性,表达具体的动作图式;2)该动作动词必须为“非动力”动词;3)该动作动词必须有表达“位移图式”的可能性。在明确了静态存在构式对动作动词的语义限制条件后,本章从动词表达的事件与存在事件的关联对动作动词同存在构式之间的联系方式进行探索,发现动词表达的核心事件与存在事件之间存在以下三种关联:1)核心事件是存在事件的“方式”;2)核心事件是存在事件的“原因”;3)核心事件是存在事件的“伴随事件”。三种事件关联还存在着一个共性,即动词的核心事件与存在事件共享一个及以上的参与者。而正是由于这些关联和共性,才使得动作动词在静态存在构式中的出现成为了可能。此外,本文还以英语非be存在动词为研究重点,分析了汉语动作存在动词的语义限制在英语中的适用性。经过分析发现,虽然英汉存在句具有一定的差异性,但是汉语动作存在动词的上述限制条件,如动词的强动作性、非动力特征以及对位移图式的表达在英语中基本上是适用的。更多还原

【Abstract】 Guided by the basic assumptions of cognitive semantics, this dissertation conducts a survey on the semantic relationships between action verbs and the Chinese static existential construction in order to detect verb selection restrictions of this construction. Based on Fillmore’s Frame Semantics and Talmy’s Motion Event-frames and lexicalization theory, the semantic analysis of action verbs aims to seek out the regular associations between these verbs and certain event semantic components so as to investigate the connections between the events expressed by action verbs and the static existential construction. This dissertation adopts qualitative methods for explanations which are based on adequate instantiations with quantitative data concerning with the action verbs derived from the online Corpus of Modern Chinese developed by Beijing University.Since the 1950s, Chinese existential sentences have gradually attracted the attention of many Chinese linguists who have applied different theories and research methods to the study of various issues concerning existential sentences, including the indefiniteness of NP, the grammatical status of the locatives as well as the pragmatic and rhetorical function of these sentences. All these studies have yielded fruitful results. Yet there still remain a lot of unsolved problems. A comparison between English and Chinese existential sentences reveals that the latter contain a wider range of action verbs in terms of both number and their semantic types. The compatibility between transitive verbs and existential sentences is unique to Chinese and has created an even greater problem in providing a unified explanation for the relationship between action verbs and existential sentences. Unfortunately, the meaning of action verbs was neglected in the previous studies for their limited role in affecting the meaning of the whole sentence. Therefore, a plausible explanation is still not found regarding the reasons for the appearance of action verbs and their semantic deviations in existential sentences.An analysis of several main approaches on this issue (including accusativity of existential verbs, the influence of auxiliary word“Zhe”, analysis of semantic features of existential verbs, etc) suggests that the constructional approach has obvious superiority for the following reasons: 1) According to construction grammar, the argument structure of a sentence is derived from the construction instead of the verb so that a unified explanation for existential sentences can be achieved. An advantage of this explanation is that it is not necessary to alter the argument structures of various action verbs so that problems such as the deletion of the agent could be avoided. 2) Semantic deviation of verbs is the consequence of coercion of the constructional meaning. It explains why all types of actions verbs assume similar meanings in existential sentences.However, improvement should be made in the constructional approach of static existential sentences. For instance, the partial productivity, i.e. the selection restrictions of existential sentences, was neglected in previous studies following this approach. Questions like“why can’t such action verbs as推(push),摘(pick) and捞(fish) appear in existential constructions”still remain unsolved. Only by exploring the event semantic features of these verbs can we explain these questions in a sensible way.Verbs mainly describe various events in the outside world. Since they are not self-sufficient in meaning, the understanding of verbs involves all kinds of components in their corresponding event frames. This point is clearly illustrated by Fillmore’s famous“commercial transaction events”. Talmy’s analysis of lexicalization pattern of motion verbs shows that the meaning of each verb could be further divided into a collection of many event components. The distribution of these event components is highly systematic and has great influence on a verb’s syntactic behaviors. Therefore, the dissertation holds that the incorporation of event components in action verb’s meaning could determine whether it is semantically compatible with existential constructions.Based on this assumption, an analysis of the lexicalized event components (i.e. those that have regular semantic association with the verb) is conducted. 17 selected components are the types and numbers of agents, the body parts that initiated the action, spatial ground, starting point of the path, the ending point of the path, instantaneity of the action, duration of the action, force, speed, types and numbers of patients, shape of patients, array of the patients, as well as the change in location and nature of patients. With a detailed analysis of instances’syntactic structure and the above components, the commonalities of the action verbs are summarized as follows: 1) They all have the potentiality of expressing motion events which has an important impact on their compatibility with existential construction; 2) They mainly express concrete scenes in which human beings are major agents; 3) They all involve spatial ground which is an important component in their meaning; 4) They express events from the perspective of the results instead of the process of the action.A study of these above features reveals the following three verb selection constraints of Chinese existential constructions: 1) the action verbs must express concrete actions instead of abstract ones; 2) the action verbs must not focus on the component of force; 3) the action verbs must have the potentiality to express motion events. The events expressed by action verbs are related to that of the Chinese static existential constructions in three ways: the former being manner, cause or accompanying events of the latter. Moreover, the two types of events must share more than one participant. It is the above connections between the events expressed respectively by verbs and constructions that make it possible for action verbs to appear in the Chinese static existential constructions. Besides, this study also shows that the semantic constraints of the Chinese static existential constructions on action verbs are also applicable to English existential constructions.更多还原