首要子句、次要子句与信息传递——兼评Halliday的子句复合体思想

Primary Clause, Secondary Clause and Message Conveyance: A Comment on Halliday's Clause Complex Theory

Halliday提出了子句复合体理论,认为各子句间的扩展关系表现为次要子句对首要子句的扩展。扩展不只是次要子句对首要子句的扩展,从交际信息的角度分析,这种扩展是信息的双向扩展。话语的起始和继续是并列关系和主从关系都具有的信息关系。可以对Halliday的主题概念进行延伸, 把话语分为主题起始句,其余为主题继续句;主题继续句又可分为起始子句和继续子句。起始子句具有信息连接功能。主题继续句中可能没有起始子句,在这种情况下,信息的连接功能由主题来承担。

Halliday advanced his clause complex theory, holding that the secondary clause expands the primary clause. The paper holds that expansion is a two-way expansion instead of one-way expansion. Initiating and continuing display the message relations that exist both in parataxis and hypotaxis. It is advisable to extend Halliday's Theme Theory to the analysis of utterances by dividing the utterances into thematic initiating clause and theme-continuing clause. The theme-continuing clause can be subdivided into initiating clause, which has message-linking function and continuing clause which expands the message. The theme-continuing clause may lack the initiating clause. In that case, it is the theme that plays the role of message linking.