汉英全称量化对比研究

A Contrastive Study of Universal Quantification in Chinese and English

在理论语言学文献里,汉语的"都"常被视作与英语的all/every功能等同的全称量化词。在重点梳理汉英语言事实和有关分析的基础上,本文提出:第一,由于"都"是一个范围副词,当其与复数名词连用时很容易造成所谓全称量化的假象,但此时语句允许例外,如"同学们都找到工作了,只有两三个没找到",这说明"都"并非是真正的全称量词;第二,全称量化表达要遵循"全真为真,一假全假"的逻辑,如*"所有/每个同学都找到工作了,只有两三个没找到"就不合法,这说明真正的全称量词"所有""每个"的量化力远大于"都",又说明将"都"视作全称量化代表的分析有舍本逐末之嫌;第三,"都"在句法属性上是传统语法学家定性的范围副词,在语义功能上则是一个强化词,即"都"的使用能够增强句子的语力。

Unlike all/every in English,universal quantification in Chinese usually relies on the cooccurrence of a universal quantifier like suoyou/mei(ge)and an adverb like dou.In the relevant literature,the status of strong quantifiers like suoyou‘all’and mei(ge)‘every’has often been downgraded and dou has been construed as the typical universal quantifier in Chinese.Having carefully examined previous studies on universal quantification and cross-linguistic data,it is argued that(1)dou,a domain adverb,tends to create an illusion that universal quantification takes place when it collocates with a plural noun phrase;(2)universal quantification disallows exception;the hard fact that dou sentences allows exceptions shows that it is not a genuine universal quantifier;(3)dou itself is syntactically a domain adverb,and semantically serves as an intensifier,whose pragmatic function is to intensify the illocutionary force of the relevant utterance.