英语间接条件句及其非语法化(下)

English indirect conditionals and their degrammaticalization (II)

本文提出,非语法化不仅指语法项目变成词汇项目,而且还应包括语法项目的逐渐消失以及语法项目获得某一语用或词汇功能连同形式上随之出现的演变。英语称谓对象满意条件句(如ifitplease you)的非条件化(即不表示条件而表示礼貌等)就是一种非语法化。文章重点论证叹词please主要源于ifit please you,位于句首的please也有可能源自Please you to+verb乃至Will it please youto+verb,从而反驳了OED关于please源自Mayit please you和Be pleasedto+verb的说法。在本文所讨论的四种经历非语法化的间接条件句中,ifit please you从条件句最后降解成叹词please,走完了非语法化的全部历程;ifit like you演化成今天的ifyoulike,保持了条件句的形式,但多用于表示礼貌和元语言条件;ifyou will形式上保持原封不动,现仅用于表示元语言条件;只有ifyou list中途被淘汰出局。

In this part of the paper the author argues that degrammaticalization should not be defined narrowly to cover only cases where a grammatical item becomes a lexical item. It should also include the gradual disappearance of a grammatical item and the acquisition of a pragmatic or lexical function by a grammatical item plus the formal changes it undergoes in the process. In this broad definition the deconditionalization of addressee-satisfaction conditionals such as if it please you is a kind of degrammaticalization. The author shows that the interjection please originated from the politeness conditional if it please you, without excluding the possibility that the sentence-initial please originated from “Please you to + verb” and even “Will it please you to + verb”, thus disproving the OED's claim that please is the short form of “May it please you” and “Be Please to + verb”. Among the four indirect conditionals that underwent degrammaticalization, if it please you was completely degrammaticalized when it was reduced to a bare interjection; if it like you became today's if you like, retaining the form of a conditional clause but expressing mainly politeness and metalinguistic conditions; if you will has remained intact formally, but is now used only to express metalinguistic condition; if you list was the only one that didn't survive the process.