构式省形与反问标记“不”的形成

The Form of Ellipsis of a Construction and the Evolution of the Rhetorical Question Marker“Bu”

在一个构式中,各成分意义的相加不一定能得出这一构式的整体意义。与此相关,一个构式内部某些构件的变化也可能不影响构式义。语言中存在着某些构式可以隐省一些构件或子构件而不影响构式义的现象,我们称之为构式省形。构式省形是语言经济性作用的结果,其条件是省形不影响意义的传递和理解,被隐省的一般不是核心构件。省形的最终结果可能使某些构件成为专职的话语标记词。汉语的反问标记"不"就是这样产生的,它标记的反问句传承了原构式的构式义。

Simply piecing together the meaning of the constituents may not come up with the correct meaning of a construction;similarly,the change of some constituent may not make any difference to the construction.In Chinese,there are some constructions in which some constituents can be omitted while the meaning remains unchanged,which is called the form of ellipsis of a construction.Such a construction is out of language economy principle--the omission should not influence the transmission and interpretation of the information.The omitted is usually not the core part.The omission may finally result in the production of discourse markers such as the rhetorical question marker“bu”which bears the meaning of the original construction.