从语篇的角度考察英语句法结构

A Discoursal Approach to Syntactic Structure

语篇功能理论认为语法是语篇中反复出现的型式形成的。本文以此为依据对英语双重谓语(简写为DP,其第一成分为DP1,第二成分为DP2)的语义功能进行了考察。对DP成分的范畴性及其在语篇中的地位的分析显示:DP1的功能在于定位(situating),DP2的功能在于说明特征(characterizing),DP句的语义功能是DP1为DP2说明主语划定范围。对DP句功能结构的分析和对DP句在语篇中的实际作用的分析进一步证实了这一结论。要了解某一语法现象,必须从语篇出发对它进行探讨。

This paper is a study of the English double predicate (hereafter DP, its components DP1 and DP2) in the light of the discourse functional theory, which holds that grammar is continually shaped by recurrent patterns in discourse. An analysis of the categoriality and status of the DP components reveals that the function of DP1 is situating and that of DP2 is characterizing, and the semantic function of DP is that DP1 provides a circumscription in which DP2 characterizes the subject. This conclusion has been reinforced and confirmed by a further analysis of the functional structures of the DP sentence, and the actual roles it plays in discourse. To make sense of a grammatical phenomenon, it is necessary to examine it from a discoursal approach.