英语分离疑问句生成机制的句法研究

The Syntactic Derivation of English Split Questions

本文认为英语分离疑问句由"特殊疑问句"和"It-分裂句"两部分构成,二者中间有语气停顿,由逗号隔开。第一部分的疑问词组经历了移位,从屈折词组内移至标句词组的标志语位置,标示其所处的结构为"特殊疑问句";第二部分以"一般疑问句"形式出现,其基本结构为:‘Is it+X+that-clause’,其中‘X’为受强调的焦点部分,‘that-clause’为预设部分。在语音式层面,为了凸显分裂结构中的焦点成分,不具有实际语义内容的虚主语‘it’、系动词‘is’以及包含旧信息的预设部分被删略,从而生成合格的英语分离疑问句。

This paper claims that a split question in English consists of a wh-question and an ＇ it-cleft＇, which are separated by a comma and have an intonation break in between. In the first part, the wh-phrase moves from IP to [Spec, CP] in order to type the clause as WH-interrogatives; the second part has the basic form of ＇Is it X that-clause＇, where ＇X＇ is put into focus and thus receives a focus interpretation and ＇that-clause＇ expresses presupposition. In order to highlight the focused ＇X＇ of a cleft, the expletive ＇it＇, the auxiliary ＇be＇ and the presupposition which carries old information are deleted at Phonetic Form, thus deriving a well-formed split question.