英语动词过去时语法意义多义关系研究

A Study of the Polysemy of the Grammatical Meanings of the Past Tense in English

通过比较英语动词过去时语法范畴研究中的类典型范畴观和经典范畴观的优势与不足，本文尝试论证了英语动词过去时所表示的四种主要的不同语法意义（即表示过去时间，表示过去时性，表示与说话的期待和看法相悖的情况，和表示客气委婉的语气）之间的关系，并论证其形成符合多义词意义繁衍过程的连锁性模式，繁衍的途径是概念的转喻和隐喻。

Modern English grammarians agree that the past tense of English verbs has four major different grammatical meanings （ i. e. to express past time, to express pastness,to express what is contrary to the belief or expectation of the speaker, and to reflect the tentative attitude of the speaker）. From a prototypical perspective,this paper tries to argue that the relationship among the four major meanings of the past tense is in comfort to the concatenation mode of word meaning proliferation,and the reason leading to this proliferation is metonymy and metaphor.