汉英主题结构的标记性:基于口语语料库的话语认知分析

Markedness of Chinese and English Topic Constructions:A Cognitive Analysis Based on Spoken Corpus

以往主题结构的标记性研究主要关注其主题表现。本文基于认知语法的当前话语空间分析模型,以日常对话为语料,从主题和述题的情境植入角度就三类主题结构在句法、话语和认知层面上的标记性等级进行了汉英对比考察。研究发现:汉语的主题标记性低于英语,而述题表现却相反;就结构间对比:汉英偏置结构的典型特征分布基本一致,但在两类前置结构上差异显著。其标记性倾向受到认知情境因素制约:汉语主题的情境植入方式简单,以延续主题和提升主题为主,话语凸显度较高,易使用主观评价类述题,而英语主题情境植入方式复杂,多为提升或旁枝主题,更易与客观描写述题搭建语义关联。不同主题结构的标记性倾向可反观汉英语言的类型差异。

This research analyzes the markedness features of Chinese and English topic constructions from a cognitive-grounding perspective. Based on the data from casual conversation corpora, we find that the topics in Chinese topic constructions are less marked than those in English, while their predicates-as-comment are more marked. Moreover, Chinese and English are convergent in left dislocations but divergent in fronting-topic constructions. Investigation shows that there is a correlation between their degree of markedness and speaker-as-conceptualizer＇ s epistemic control over topics. As topics in Chinese are more accessible in CDS, speakers tend to express their subjective assessment in the predicates. However, as deferring topics are more prominent in English, speakers tend to give more objective de- scriptions. This helps to explain the typological differences between Chinese and English topic constructions.