英汉“言据标记”词汇化对比研究:事件语义视角

A Contrastive Study on Lexicalization of Evidential Markers in English and Chinese:An Event Semantics Perspective

本文基于事件语义,比较了英汉言据标记在词汇化程度上的差异。研究发现,整体而言,英汉语都有不同的手段编码言据概念,可以是词、短语、固定结构或小句;但当编码具有复杂事件语义信息的报告类言据概念时,英语的词汇化程度高于汉语。研究认为,这与两种语言具备的形态手段不同有关:英语具备相对丰富的形态变化,更容易借助形态变化将丰富的报告类言据事件语义信息融合到单个词汇中;汉语则由于缺乏形态手段,词汇融合事件语义成分的能力较弱。研究表明,语言间的差异有其内在的原因和机制,一部分可以从语言编码概念语义的手段和方式上得到解释。

This paper, based on event semantics, makes a contrastive analysis of the lexicalization of evidential markers in English and Chinese. It finds that both Chinese and English use multiple linguistic devices to encode the shared evidential con- ceptual information. But as far as the encoding of reportative event semantics is concerned, obvious difference is found between the two languages, with English being more capable of encoding reportative evidential information in lexical forms, while Chinese more relying on compositional devices to encode it. Given the difference, it is plausible to assume that the fewer morphological devices a language has, the less likely for its lexical items to be employed to encode complex conceptual information.