“谁让”问句研究

A Study of Shéi Ràng Questions in Chinese

“谁让我小呢？”不能按正常反问句理解为“没人（谁也没）让我小”，其基本作用是释因，含有抱怨、无奈等含义。本文运用反问句产生模式和会话含义理论，解释“释因”等含义的来源，认为该句式使用在出现了不利情况的语境中，为不利情况寻找原因。该旬式经历了主动词“去操纵化”过程，免除了“谁”的责任，从而使得谓宾小句成了不利情况的原因。

Unhke general rhetorical questions, Shéi ràng wǒ xiǎo ne？ （谁让我小呢？） could not be interpreted as ＂nobody lets me be young＂, but rather gives the explanation of cause, implying ＂complaining＂ and ＂having no alternative＂. In the light of the generative mechanism of rhetorical questions and the theory of conversational implicature, this paper makes an analysis of the origin of the cause-explanation meaning, arguing that this kind of rhetorical question is always used in the context with unfavorable condition and that its main verb ＂de-controlling＂ exempts shéi （谁） from responsibility, so the object clause takes cause for the unfavorable condition.