英汉存在构式与动词语义关联的实证对比研究

An empirical and contrastive study of the semantic association between verbs and existential constructions in English and Chinese

英语there构式和汉语"V着"构式均以"存在"为基本义,是两种语言中表达该概念的典型构式。本文采用Stefanowitsch & Gries(2003)的"构式搭配分析法",计算出两构式与动词之间的关联度,考察两者在动词语义分布、构式中心语义及描述事件的特征等方面是否存在差异。研究发现:1)汉语"V着"构式能产性高,但语义相对集中,描述的事件范围较窄;2)两构式与动词关联度的排序反映了两者的中心语义差异及事件表达规律;3)英语there构式对描述的事件既可采用"近景化识解",也可采用"远景化识解",而汉语"V着"构式的识解方式仅限于前者;4)动词与构式的语义相容程度可在"状态-事件"、"客观-主观"、"整体-部分"这三个维度上进行分析。

There-construction in English and V-zhe(着)construction in Chinese are the two canonical constructions in the two languages to express the concept of existence.This paper adopts a collostructional analysis to work out the collostruction strength between verbs and the two constructions and further analyzes their semantic associations.It is found that 1)While Chinese V-zhe construction is far more productive than English there-construction,its meaning is more focused and the event types described are more restricted;2)The differences in distributions,semantic types and association degrees of English and Chinese existential verbs reflectrules regarding event descriptions and subtle differences in the central meaning of the two constructions;3)There-construction and its Chinese counterpart also have different construing strategies,in that the former involves both internal and external perspective in viewing an event while the latter only allows internal perspective;4)The semantic compatibility of verbs and existential constructions can be analyzed in terms of three dimensions:the state-event dimension,the objective-subjective dimension and the whole-part dimension.