连动式的语义生成范式及其触发条件

Generative Models of SVC s Semantics and Their Triggering Conditions

连动式都是“VP 1VP 2”的形式,却可以表示多种不同的语义结构。本文采用新描写主义方法,从事件语义学的视角,将不同的语义结构转换为特定类型的非空集指称。据此对连动式做出重新分类,并揭示出连动式中的五种语义生成范式:合取范式、毗邻范式、包含范式、并行范式和析取范式。其中合取范式属于交集性质范式,其他属于并集性质范式。制约这些范式的是两种不同类型的触发条件:VP的有界性和VP的二元逻辑关系。这些触发条件有着不同的强制性和语用预设,由此形成了多种语义结构有序共存于连动式中的现象。

Though sharing the same surface structure of "VP1VP2", serial verb constructions(SVCs) in Mandarin Chinese have so many different semantic structures that the phenomenon of Mandarin SVCs is called a Gordian Knot by Paul(2008). In this paper, firstly, an event-semantics analysis is made on the Mandarin SVCs, which reveals that the different semantic structures of SVC can be described as the different ways in which an SVC obtains its denotation(which is written as, the set of events) from the denotations of VP1 and VP2(written as and respectively). Accordingly, Mandarin SVCs can be divided into two classes. Secondly, the structural significance of VP’s telicity and the intersective/compatible relation between VP1 and VP2 are exposited in detail to account for the triggering conditions of these SVCs.The first way for a SVC to obtain its denotation is to take the intersection of and as its denotation, that is, = ∩. The SVCs of this type are called conjunctive SVCs, and their triggering condition is that VP1 and VP2 must be intersective, that is, ∩ ≠ ?, which means VP1 and VP2 can be used to express two different properties of the same event.The second way for an SVC to obtain its denotation is to take the set of the subsets of ∪ as its denotation. There are two sub-classes of SVCs which obtain their denotations in this way, that is, Disjunctive SVC and Cartesian SVC. The denotation of the former is {X | X ? ∪ such that X ∩ ≠ ?, X ∩ ≠ ?}, whereas the denotation of the latter is { Symbol|@@e1, e2>R | e1 ∈, e2 ∈}, in which R represents a kind of temporal relation between e1 and e2. Since there are three different temporal relations found in the Cartesian SVCs, there are three sub-types of Cartesian SVCs: Successive SVC with the temporal schema of Time(e1) Symbol|@@ Time(e2), Inclusive SVC with Time(e2) ? Time(e1), and Parallel SVC with Time(e1) = Time(e2).The triggering conditions of Successive SVC and Inclusive SVC are based on the telicity of VPs. Firstly, the telicity of VP1 will incur a closed temporal context which will prevent the event(s) denoted by VP2 from entering the context(Li and Man 2013;Li 2016). In this case, the temporal schema of Time(e1) Symbol|@@ Time(e2) is formed, which means "VP1VP2" is interpreted as a successive SVC. Secondly, the event denoted by a telic VP is conceptualized as an extended event while the event denoted by an atelic VP is conceptualized as a non-extended event. Therefore, if VP1 is telic while VP2 is atelic, "VP1VP2" is interpreted as an inclusive SVC because in this case, the temporal schema is Time(e2) ? Time(e1).The triggering condition of Parallel SVC is based on the compatible relation between VP1 and VP2. However, unlike the intersective relation, the compatible relation is not compulsive, because firstly it is under the influence of the contextual cues when it triggers the structural interpretation of SVC;secondly it is reduced to a kind of presupposition in the case of inclusive SVC.In addition to these triggering conditions, the different types of SVCs have different presuppositions. It is due to the interaction of triggering conditions and presuppositions that various semantic structures can co-exist in the same structure of "VP1VP2".