从生成整体论的角度看语言结构的生成与分析--主要以汉语动宾结构为例

A Study on the Generation of Verb-object Constructions in Chinese from the Perspective of Generative Holism

汉语句法结构和语义结构的关系较为松散,同一类句法结构常可包容多种语义关系。动宾结构又是颇为能产并极具开放特征的句法结构,汉语句法结构有着较强的语义兼容能力的特点,在动宾结构中体现得尤为突出。动宾结构究竟能够包容多少种语义关系,乃至某些动宾结构的语义关系应当如何确认,一直被视为汉语语法研究中的难题。之所以会有这样的"难题"存在,就是因为语言研究中的结构分析同语言运用中的结构生成和理解,在理念与方法上均存有抵牾。简单地说,主要以"系统整体论"为哲学范式的语言结构分析是难以全面、准确地反映本质上与"生成整体论"思想相契合的汉语句法结构的内在机制的,因而其有效性会有一定的限度。句法结构的生成与其说是从部分到整体,不如说是从一个整体到另一个整体,部分在整体中的地位、部分对整体的表述价值,决定着部分——结构成分的提取方式。汉语句法结构的生成注重部分的突显度,注重部分同整体的关系,应是汉语句法结构语义包容能力极强的根本原因,"正反同义结构"中的否定式等语义关系难以解释的句法结构的存在,便是其中比较典型或者说比较极端的例证。

The relationship between syntactic structure and semantic structure in Chinese is diverse. A certain kind of syntactic structure can express many kinds of semantic relations, and it is difficult to identify the semantic relations of the verb-object constructions in Chinese. In our analysis, we tend to analyze sentences from the perspective of Systematic Holism rather than that of Generative Holism as it is often assumed that the language structure is made up of linguistic elements through its inherent semantic association, and the whole can be decomposed into different parts, while the parts can be put together to form the whole. For this reason, the relationship between the structural components of language constructions can be analyzed. In fact, structures of a language are generated as a whole conceptual structure, rather than as a combination of decomposed parts. Before language structures are generated, the components of language structures are parts of the cor- responding conceptual structures of a language. Both the position and its value of the parts in the whole structure determine the way in which the components are extracted. As a kind of end-focus language, Chinese has a rich variety of verb-object constructions, which may be formed by such an underlying mechanism： parts may represent but may not make up a whole. The generation of the Chinese syntactic structure focuses on the salience of the parts and the relations between parts and the whole, which may result in a very complex relationship between syntax and semantics according to the present analysis. What should be pointed out is that the semantics of the verb-object construction can mostly be analyzed, and semantic roles of its components can also be determined. All this is due to the overall characteristics of the conceptual structures corresponding to the syntactic structures.