日语非生物主语的认知研究

Cognitive Linguistic Study of Japanese Inanimate Subjects

句法形式与语义的不对应现象是日语句法系统研究的重要内容之一，对二者关系的探讨可以揭示认知方式与日语的表达形式之间的关系。本文以「大水が家屋を押し流した」（洪水冲走了房屋。）这种以非生物名词做主语并使用及物动词的句式为例，分析并阐释了日语非生物主语句的成立机制。从主语语义特征的角度论证了日语句式从典型的生物主语＋及物动词句向非生物主语＋及物动词句的延展是基于“主语通过使用自身能量使受事发生某种变化”的语义动因。

The inconsistency between sentence structure and sentence meaning is one of the major foci of Japanese syntactic study. The exploration of the interface can reveal the relationship between cognition and Japanese expressions. This paper, by analyzing sentence such as ＂Oomizu ga kaoku wo oshinagashita＂ （ The flood washed the house away. ）, in which a transitive verb takes an inanimate subject as an analytical subject, explores the formation mechanism of such Japanese sentences. The analysis reveals that the change in sentence structure, i. e. from the most prototypical animate subject ＋ transitive verb to the least prototypical inanimate subject ＋ transitive verb, is attributed to the semantic component of the subject-＂ the nominal subject which contains the energy makes some sort of change to its object＂.