句法结构的认知视角:框架和注意窗理论

A Cognitive Perspective of Syntax: Theories of Frame and Windowing of Attention

框架理论不同于只注意句法图形和背景的图形/背景理论,而是更多地注意同属一个框架的不同动词的意义问题;又不同于形象/基底理论分别处理认知过程不同层次上的问题,而是描述统一的句型观;也不同于突显理论在每个层次上几乎只关心两个突显实体,在句法层只关心句法图形(主语)和背景(宾语),而是关心更广的范围,包括间接宾语和状语。事件框架分析中的注意窗理论把地点状语视为位移事件框架的路线成分,分析事件框架中某一部分前景化的认知过程,认为在语言表达中,说话人可以用显性表达把路线的某部分前景化,即开启“注意窗”。框架和注意窗理论是认知语言学理论中对语言表层结构较有解释力的理论,能够解释表层句法选择的动因。一些传统上不能很好解释的句法现象在这里可以得到较好的解释。

Frame theory is different from the figure/ground theory which focuses only on the figure and ground of sentences in that it focuses its attention on the semantics of verbs belonging to the same frame, it also differs from the base/profile theory which separately deals with the problems on different levels in cognitive process in that it has a unitary view of syntax. And last, the range of its concern is larger, with indirect object and adverbials included, than the prominence theory which is only concerned with the two prominent entities, especially with the subject and object at syntactic level. The theory of attention in event frame analysis views the adverbial of locetion as the path element of the motion event frame, emphasizing the cognitive process of the foregrounding of a certain element, and holds that in linguistic expressions the speaker can foreground a certain part of the path by explicitly expressing it, that is, by opening the window of attention. The two theories are more powerful than traditional theories and other cognitive linguistic theories in the explanation of syntactic structure.