情态与非情态的认知解读——评价与情态的区别探析

A Cognitive Approach to Modality and Non-modality——A Discussion on the Distinction between Evaluation and Modality

如何将情态与其他语言范畴区分开来是情态研究面临的一个难题,借鉴认知语法用来区分情态动词与零情态动词(即无情态动词陈述句)语义的现实与非现实概念,探讨了Martin构建的评价系统与情态之间的关系。作为评价系统两种不同的表达形式,评价性词汇与情态动词在识解经验过程的视角模式上形成互补:评价性词汇关注真实性,而情态动词关注可能性。当评价性词汇描述一个现实事件,而情态动词描述一个非现实事件时,它们表示了非情态与情态语义的对立。然而,当评价性词汇描述一个非现实事件,而情态动词描述一个现实事件时,它们则构建出诸如非现实情境的现实性与现实情境的非现实性这样复杂的矛盾概念。研究表明,评价范畴揭示了情态与非情态的互补性。

How to distinguish modality from other linguistic categories is a problem the study of modality has been facing. This paper discusses the relationship between modality and Martin＇s appraisal system on the basis of the concept of reality vs. irreality which Cognitive Grammar uses to discriminate the meanings between modals and the zero modal （the absence of a modal in a declarative sentence）.As two different means to express evaluation, evaluative words and modal verbs are complementary in the perspectives from which they construe experience, with the evaluative focussing on factuality and the modal on possibility. When an evaluative word describes a factual event or a modal describes a non-factual one, they express the semantic contrast between non-modality and modality. However, when an evaluative describes an non-factual event or a modal a factual one, they express such contradictory meanings as reality involved in a non-factual event or irreality involved in a factual event. This paper suggests that the category of evaluation reveals the complementarity of modality and non-modality.