汉语及亲邻语言连动式的句法地位和显赫度

Syntactic Status and Mightiness of Serial Verb Constructions in Chinese and Neighboring Languages

在汉语这种连动式显赫的语言中,连动式会向并列和主从两个方向扩展,形成更接近并列或更接近主从的语义关系,句法上仍然属于连动式而非改属并列或主从结构。连动式在东亚、东南亚地区常见而并非普遍,主要存在于形态不丰富的语言如壮侗语、苗瑶语、藏缅语中的彝语支及景颇语支、南亚语系,而少见或不见于形态变化较为丰富的语言如羌、藏语支和阿尔泰系语言。

In the framework of Linguistic Inventory Typology, this paper examines the syntactic status and mightiness of serial verb constructions （SVCs） in Chinese, and then makes a survey of SVCs in the neighboring languages. Following the temporal ordering iconicity, the VPs in an SVC present themselves serially without taking any overt markings such as morphological devices or function words. An SVC prototypically denotes a macro-event consisting of a number of successive micro-events, with its semantic domain settled in between what coordination and subordination may respectively convey. Further, as a mighty category the SVCs in Chinese make semantic expansions into the domains of coordination and subordination. This step naturally results in a bidirectional semantic affinity of SVCs either to coordination or to subordination. From a syntactic perspective, however, they remain SVCs in nature rather than becoming integrated into the coordinate or subordinate constructions, unless certain syntactically verified new constructions emerge and split from original SVCs, such as the well-established resultative and directional constructions in Chinese. SVCs exist in many but not all languages in East and Southeast Asia, mainly attested in languages with limited morphology, such as Kam-Tai languages, Hmong-Mien languages, languages of the Yi and Jingpho groups of the Tibeto-Burman branch （TB）, and the Austroasiatic languages. In languages with rich morphology such as the Qiang and Tibetan groups of TB as well as the Altaic languages, SVCs rarely occur or are absent.