疑问词的语法化机制和特征

Mechanisms and Characteristics of Grammaticalization in Interrogative Words

本文探讨单用或连用疑问词的语法化机制和特征。疑问词有表示疑问和非疑问两种用法,疑问词的疑问用法有很多共性,表达的都是基本概念功能。而受各自语言语法系统特点的不同影响,非疑问用法在形式上就体现出更多个性,但他们也有明显的共同点,那就是都表达句法功能甚至话语功能,指代功能逐渐弱化,句法标记功能逐渐加强。疑问词的疑问用法在现行语言中是基本用法,而它们的非疑问用法如遍指、虚指等是通过语法化过程发展演变而来的,是语义和句式制约的结果。也就是说从疑问用法到非疑问用法的语法化过程是一个客观意义逐渐缩减而主观性意义增加的主观化过程,也是单向性路径的演变过程。

According to Chinese and English corpuses, this paper tries to explore the mechanisms and characteristics of grammaticalization in interrogative words when they are used alone or successively from the perspective of their functional expansion, more exactly, their grammaticalizational expression. Chinese and English interrogative words have many common characteristics in their interrogative usages, for they all express their basic conceptual functions. However, affected by their respective grammatical systems, their non-interrogative usages show a lot of special characteristics. They also share something in common： syntactic and discourse functions are expressed, demonstrative functions become weakened, and the syntactic marking functions are strengthened. Interrogative usages are still basic functions of interrogative words in the present languages, and their non-interrogative usages such as general reference and subjunctive reference are transformed through the process of grammaticalization, which is the result of semantic and syntactic restrictions. That is to say, the process of grammaticalization from interrogative to non-interrogative usages is a subjectivisationalizing process in which objective meanings are weakened, while subjective meanings strengthened. What＇ s more, it is a unidirectional process. That is, interrogative words come through usages in certain highly constrained local contexts to be reanalyzed as having non-interrogative usages or pragmatic functions.