关注中心和基本主题——试析小句与段落之间的语篇单位

Center of Interest and Basic-level Topic——A Tentative Inquiry into a Discourse Unit Intermediate Between the Clause and the Paragraph

在话语分析中话语究竟如何推进当是一个带根本性的问题。Halliday指出英语话语是作为一系列不间断的具有旋律特征的单位推进的。对于话语进展Chafe有另外一种看法,其出发点是意识在语言和语言使用中的作用。他把Halliday的信息单位称之为体现意识焦点的意义单位(idea unit)。意识有若干特征,主要的是意识有焦点;此外,意识焦点总是处于边缘意识的包围之中,活性焦点周围的半活性信息为焦点提供语境。但是意识焦点所包含的信息常常不足以充分地满足人们的需要。通常的情况是,足以满足说话人需要的信息量要溢过单个意识焦点的有限容量。这就需要允许几个焦点扫描这一信息,构成Chafe所说的关注中心(center of interest),也就是语篇层次上的基本主题。意识焦点是活性信息,而关注中心是半活性信息,也就是意识边缘地区的信息。它的作用在于引导意识从一个焦点向另一个焦点转移。Chafe说主题是可以处于半活性状态的大量信息的组合(1994:121)。基本主题的范围构成介于小句和段落之间的语篇单位。在实践中基本主题并不难识别,基本主题之间往往有话语标记或附加语标出,当意识取向或意识起作用的方式改变时,就会出现新的基本主题。

To the question how discourse proceeds we find an answer in Halliday （1994） where it is stated that English speech progresses as an unbroken succession of melodic units called tone groups and each tone group realizes one unit of information. There is an alternative way of looking at the development of discourse, which starts with the role and language use. What Halliday calls an information unit Chafe refers to as a focus of 1994）. One of the properties of consciousness is that it has a central focus and a periphery plays in language or an idea unit （Chafe It is often the case that what can be embraced within a single focus is often too little to serve adequately the needs of the human organism. It is necessary to allow several focuses to scan available information, so a number of focuses of consciousness may make up a super-focus, which constitutes a center of interest or basic-level topic. While a focus of consciousness is constrained by human cognitive capacity, a center of interest is not. A basic-level topic ends where the speaker decides the topic has been adequately covered for whatever purpose he may have in mind. The scope of a basic-level topic constitutes an intermediate discourse unit between a clause and a paragraph. Basic-level topics are not difficult to identify in practice. The boundaries between them are often marked with discourse markers or adjuncts, and a new center of interest occurs where there is a shift of consciousness in orientation or mode.