诺苏彝语话题的指称特征

Referential Features of Topics in Nuosu(诺苏) Yi(彝)

话题是普遍存在于世界语言中的一个概念,通常由有定的或类指的成分充当。诺苏彝语是话题凸显型语言,它的名词性话题从指称上来说,除了有定的和类指的成分外,在一定条件下可以是无定有指的和无指的成分。此外,非指称性的名词成分也可作话题。各名词性成分充任话题的能力不同,呈等级排列:有定的>类指的>非指称性成分>无定有指的>无指的。名词性成分的指称义和其语言形式关系密切,但并非一一对应。指称义的语言形式的选择取决于句子的功能和情态类型、名词的性质以及语用因素。

Topic is a universal notion in human languages and should be definite or generic. Nuosu（诺苏） Yi（彝） is a topic-prominent language in which topic can be specific and non-specific noun phrases except definite and generic ones. In addition, non-referring nouns can also be topics in some context as well. Nouns with different referential status have different ability to be the topics. It can be described as a hierarchy： definite 〉 generic 〉 non-referential 〉 specific 〉 unspecific. Although there is a close relationship between the referential statuses and coding forms of the noun phrases, they are not correspond with each other. The coding forms of referential phrases are related with the functional and modality types of the sentences, the property of the nouns and some pragmatic factors.