成语组构性的认知语言学解读——熟语表征和理解的认知研究之二

A Cognitive Linguistic Interpretation of Semantic Compositionality in Chinese Idioms

在语义学研究中,"组构性"(compositionality)这一概念与语义的组织方式有关。对于某个由若干成分组成的语言单位而言,其固有的意义取决于这些成分的语义以及它们的组合方式。熟语被定义为固定的词组,其意义往往难以按照一般的构词法推导出来。传统的熟语研究多将熟语视为"死亡的"隐喻,认为无法对熟语进行组构性分析,无法从组成熟语的单词以及词义的组合中获知熟语义,单个成分与整个熟语在语义上是不太相关的。然而,认知语言学向这一传统的熟语语义观提出了挑战。认知语言学认为,熟语的组成成分具有与熟语义相关的意义,语言使用者能够识别出组成成分的意义,熟语的心理表征和语义加工是基于组构性的。本文根据组成成语的单个汉字对成语规约义贡献程度的不同,将成语划分为高组构成语、中组构成语和低组构成语三大类。这种基于内省法的分类在Langlotz(2006)提出的"惯用激活集合"(Idiomatic-Activation Set)这一认知语言学理论框架下得到了很好的解释。

Within the realm of semantics,the concept of ＂compositionality＂ concerns the manner of semantic composition in which the intrinsic meaning of a linguistic unit is determined by the meanings of its constituent parts and the way in which these parts are arranged.An idiom,by definition,refers to a relatively fixed and conventionalized multi-word phrase with a stipulated figurative meaning that cannot be deducible from the meanings of the constituent words put together.Traditional views of idiomaticity thereby usually regarded idioms as ＂dead＂ metaphors,ruling out any compositional analysis of their constituent words to derive the idiomatic meanings.However,newly emerging linguistic theories,especially Cognitive Linguistics,tend to adopt a challenging stance on the absolute irrelevance between meanings of constituent parts and meanings of idioms comprising these parts.It has been proposed that the constituents of some idioms possess identifiable meanings associated with idiomatic meanings;idiom representation and processing is based upon compositionality.The present paper holds that compositionality can be regarded as a feasible criterion for sorting Chinese idioms.In light of the degree of contribution given by individual Chinese characters＇ meanings to the stipulated figurative meanings,Chinese idioms with the double V＋N grammatical structure can be classified into three types（i.e.,Chinese idioms with the high/medium/low degree of compositionality）.The introspection-based classification has been fully justified within the cognitive-linguistic framework of Idiomatic Activation-Set（Langlotz 2006）.