英汉“难易评价结构”的主题性与非人称性：认知对比视角

Topicality/impersonality of tough-constructions in English and Chinese:A cognitive approach

本文基于可比语料库对难易评价结构的句式分布与功能取向进行认知对比考察。研究发现:句式的主题性/非人称性表达并不以补语命题成分的提升与否为必要充分条件,不同评价方式的选择取决于说话人作为认知主体对补语命题的认识性控制。从对比角度看,主题性/非人称性的实现方式构成连续统,其中宾语提升具有高主题性,It-句和无主句在非人称表达上有功能对等性,而汉语独特的主语提升具有多功能取向,提升成分在话语中的特指与非特指性与说话人对所述事件的主客观评价有关。

This paper is a corpus-based cognitive study of the distribution and functional tendency of tough-constructions with two evaluative predicates easy/difficult in English and their equivalents in Chinese.With a behavior-profile analysis of the comparable data in the two languages,it finds that topicality/impersonality of different constructions cannot be adequately accounted for by the syntactic behavior of raising.Their representation,instead,is a reflection of the speaker-as-conceptualizer's epistemic control over the event designated by the complement clause.Comparatively,their syntactic realization in English and Chinese forms a continuum,among which object-raising is a typical topicalized construction while the non-raising It-and subjectless constructions are both functionally impersonal.Subject-raising is a heterogeneous cluster in Chinese,with its specific and non-specific reference compatible with the speaker's subjective or objective construal towards the profiled event.