从“们”的搭配限制看其功能原理

On- men's Function Mechanism from Its Collocational Restrictions

对“们”的功能须区别组合对象是代词P还是名词N,文章关注后者。在这里,弄清所组合N的范畴性质是认识“们”之功能内涵的前提,而学界对此尚存争议。文章首先论证“N们”的N指的是类。类并不是一个具体的名词次类,而是一种居于各种名词次类之上的高阶范畴,其特征是基于共同属性(内涵)而概括具体事物(外延),其中属性居前景地位,具体事物则被抑制。“们”的功能就在于转换这种凸显关系:指复数性的具体个体,抑制属性义。“N们”的定指义只是外层特征,并不稳定:它也常表泛指。其次,文章通过具体考察“们”与属性、集合、关系三种名词的选择限制,来揭示“们”的功能原理。属性名词是一种反证,它们属性义强而事物性弱,所以排斥“们”,但其事物性也容易有所提高而接受“们”。文章发现,集合名词的内部成员很杂,并不构成一个完备的名词次类。典型集合名词直接指复数个体,排斥“们”,但词项很少,多数集合名词实际指类,允准“们”。与已有认识不同,文章认为关系名词指类,都允准“们”。

When studying the Chinese surfix-men,we must be clear about the word that collocates with it,i.e.,whether it is a pronoun or a noun.This article focuses on the latter alone.Clarifying the categorical nature of the NP that collocates with-men is the precondition for the study of-men's function.However,this is still controversial in the academic world.This article first demonstrates that the N in N-men denotes kind.The category of kind is not a particular sub-class of nouns,but a higher category supervening all nouns.This function covers allparticular objects(extension)based on some common properties(intension),and the properties are more prominent and theobjects are suppressed.The function of-men is to reverse that relation.Scholars often hold that the N-men has is definite,but we disagree with that,and maintain that thedefineteness is only a peripheral feature,and is not an solid one,for the N-men may indicate generific reference.Secondly,this article investigates the collocational restrictions of-men that concurs with attribute nouns,collective nouns,and relational nouns.We take the attribute nouns as a counterevidence.Since those nouns make properties prominent and ignore objects,they reject-men.On the other hand,many attribute nouns can enhance their thingness and accept-men.In fact,the collective nouns are not a perfect noun sub-class,and have heterogeneous members.The typical collective nouns denote objects directly and reject-men.But such collective nouns are rare.Most of them denote kind and accept-men.Differently from the predominant viewpoint,this article demonstrates that the relational nouns all denote kind and accept-men.