光杆名词短语类指功能的跨语言考察

A cross-linguistic investigation into the generic function of bare NPs

光杆名词短语(bare NP)是人类语言表达类指最自然的手段,凡允许光杆NP做论元的语言,都或多或少地允许光杆NP表达类指。不同语言的光杆NP表达类指时在自身可数性、适用的下位类指类型、能指称的"类"及句法分布等方面存在差异。这些差异源自不同语言在"数"范畴和(不)定指范畴方面语法库藏特点的不同:复数标记的能产性和句法使用强制性越高,复数NP向类指领域扩张的能力越强,同时光杆NP可数越容易丢失其"泛数"性质而被迫带上"单数"意义,从而导致光杆NP可数的类指能力相对越差;(不)定指标记的能产性和句法使用强制性越高,光杆NP越容易失去独立充当论元的能力,加之{(不)定冠词+NP}向类指领域的扩张,光杆NP越不可能独立地表达类指。

Bare NPs are the most natural device for kind-reference. Languages which permit bare NPs to serve as arguments all allow bare NPs to express kind-reference to some extent. When expressing kind-reference, bare NPs of different languages behave differently as to whether all bare NPs or just uncountable bare NPs are allowed, what subtypes of kind-reference can be expressed, what kind of "KIND" can be referred to, and what syntactic positions they can occur. Such behavioral variations of bare NPs result from the inventory differences among languages in the grammatical categories of NUMBER and(UN)IDENTIFIABLITY, with the general tendency being that the mightier these categories are in a language, the more capacity its {pl+NP} and {(in)def+NP} have to expand to the territory of KIND-REFERENCE and the more likely its bare NPs to lose their property of being general number as well as their ability to be arguments, and in turn the weaker function its bare NPs have to express kind-reference.