评构式语法的理论取向与局限

The Theoretical Orientation and Limits of Construction Grammar

构式语法采取功能主义方法,将词汇、语法、语义、语用视为一个整体从而对语言现象进行有悖于传统语法的分析。它把构式看作其形式或意义的某些方面具有不可预测性的形式—意义的配对,不管是词素还是句子都不存在组合或转换关系,都是形式和意义的直接映射,也就是语言不存在层级和递归。词素、短语、句子构成一个连续统,其间没有本质的区别。构式语法注重感知的整合而忽略逻辑的分析,一个明显的问题是:一方面没有什么不是构式,另一方面任一个构式都是无穷个构式。这一分析方法将造成解释系统的混沌与弥散,自然也就缺少科学所要求的刚性特征。

Construction grammar (CG) adopts a functionalist approach to regard lexicon, grammar, semantics, and pragmatics as an integral whole, hence its analysis of language is detrimental to that of traditional grammars. CG regards a construction as a form-meaning pair, some aspect of which is unpredictable. A construction entails direct mapping between form and meaning with no combinatorial or transformational relationship involved, be it a morpheme or a sentence, that is, there exists no hierarchy or recursion in language and there is no essential difference between morphemes, words and sentences, which form a continuum. As CG pinpoints perceptual integration and neglects logical analysis, its problem is evident: on the one hand there is nothing that cannot be a construction, on the other any construction can be infinite constructions. Such an approach will cause confusion and dispersion to an explanatory system, hence no rigidity as is required by science.