主语的语法性质和语言类型学意义

On subject’s grammatical category and typological significance

主语原本属于表层句法概念,由于常被不同的语法范畴借用,其语法性质一直模糊不清,往往跟底层句法的外论元、语义的施事角色、语用的话题混为一谈。事实上主语和外论元、施事角色、话题之间并不存在对应关系,它们分属于不同的语法层面。英语作为构型性强的语言,其表层句法要求句子必须有主语。英语句子的主语在性、数、格等特征上和定式谓语动词构成一致关系,比较容易从形式上识别和定义。而汉语作为构型性弱的语言,凸显的是话题;另外,汉语主语很难识别,从语义特征和句法形式都无法给汉语主语下一个明晰的定义。基于以上因素,本文认为汉语分析可以摒弃主语这个术语。

As a syntactic notion of S-structure,subject is often improperly used in other grammatical categories. The casual use of the term leads to the fallacy that subject is correspondingly related to external argument,agent role and topic,each of which genuinely belongs to a different grammatical dimension. English being a language constrained with rigid configuration,its sentence without a subject is alleged grammatically ill-formed. Since subject of English sentence agrees with its predicate finite verb in the features of gender,number and case,it can be defined formally in morphological perspective. In Chinese,however,subject is by no means grammatically mandatory and can hardly be defined in any accurate terms. Thus it is assumed that notion of subject in Chinese is theoretically worthless and should be excluded from the analysis of Chinese sentences.