“走上正道”还是“步入歧途”?——在霍凯特语法模型分类框架下重读《句法结构》

A Promising Path or a Dead-End Road?——Reviewing Syntactic Structures against Hockett’s Taxonomic Framework of Grammatical Models

20世纪中期,霍凯特和乔姆斯基各自列举出三种语法描写模型。在《句法结构》中,乔姆斯基以他列举的三种句法模型为基础进行论证,推出了转换生成语法。以霍凯特语法模型分类框架为参照重读《句法结构》有助于从生成语法发端之处反思乔姆斯基的语法研究路线。研究发现,《句法结构》在使用形式化手段和转换规则等具体方法上仍在霍凯特框架之内,但在语言本体和句法本质等根本认识上却已然不同。霍凯特所列语法模型强调从语言事实中归纳语法规律,而乔姆斯基的生成语法则以抽象假设和逻辑推演为主要方法,两者渐行渐远。

Hockett and Chomsky presented three models of grammatical description respectively in the 1950 s.Chomsky’s three models were integrated into his well-known masterpiece Syntactic Structures and developed into the transformational generative grammar, with which Chomsky blazed a new trail in the study of language. In light of Hockett’s taxonomic framework of grammatical models, Syntactic Structures has been reviewed to reflect on the Chomskyan approach to language at the very beginning of its development. It has been found that in Syntactic Structures, the tactics employed, such as formalizing grammatical description and applying transformation rules,are still in Hockett’s taxonomic framework while some underlying views of language and grammar are not. The grammatical models presented in Hockett’s taxonomic framework value highly the way of generalizing grammatical patterns from observable linguistic facts, but Chomskyan generative linguistics puts much more emphasis on hypothesis construction and logic inference, which distances itself further and further from realistic language use.