从“标记颠倒”看韵律和语法的象似关系

Markedness reversal:The iconicity of prosody and syntax in Chinese

在标记理论中,"标记颠倒"(markedness reversal)是指一个主范畴与它包含的一个次范畴在标记性上相反,背后的理据是某种关系的"象似"(iconicity)。汉语三音节的定中结构和述宾结构在与韵律结构(单双音节搭配[2+1]和[1+2])相匹配时存在着标记颠倒,这是因为汉语的动词是名词的一个次类,动性词语是名性词语的一个次类。在三音节定中结构里充当定语的名词和形容词在与韵律结构相匹配时也存在着标记颠倒,这是因为汉语的形容词是动词的一个次类因而也是名词的一个次类。这两个标记颠倒背后的理据是语言形式和意义之间的"松紧象似"和"多少象似",形式的松紧多少对应于意义的松紧多少。汉语"名含动,动含形"的词类模式与标记颠倒理论可以相互印证。从类型学的角度看,韵律是汉语的一种语法形态手段,首先用来区分摹状和非摹状,其次才对名、动、形做有限的区别。

Markedness reversal is defined in this paper as a reversal of a particular feature between a category and a subcategory under that category.In Mandarin Chinese the mono-vs.di-syllable distinction and the related [2+1] vs.[1+2] distinction in syllable alignment determines to a large degree the differentiation of two major syntactic relations,attributive-noun and verb-object.This kind of prosodic distinction is actually a morpho-syntactic means characteristic of the Chinese language which lacks inflectional morphology of the Indo-European languages.The fact is explained by markedness reversal,motivated by the iconicity of tightness and quantity between prosodic structures and syntactic relations,because in Chinese verbs constitute a subcategory in the noun category and adjectives a subcategory in the verb category.The related markedness reversal also sheds light on the characteristics of Chinese in its word class system.Typologically,in addition to the fact that Chinese adjectives behave more like verbs,more importantly,the primary distinction of word classes in Chinese is between depictives and non-depictives,the former includ～ing reduplicative forms of nouns,verbs and adjectives.