跨语言视角下存在句推导中的斯拉夫化现象

The Slavification in the Derivation of Locative Existential Configuration:A Cross-linguistic Perspective

跨语言视角下,存在句动词后的论元往往表现出强制性的"弱解读"特征。这一特征出现在一系列语言中,包括英语、西班牙语、希伯来语和汉语。"弱解读"限制在部分过往文献中被默认为构式本身的要求,却缺乏句法推导层面的系统解释。本文借用Borer有关斯拉夫语完成体前缀的观点,试图在句法层面上给予存在句一个新的分析。本文认为不同语言存在句的生成均涉及"斯拉夫化",即句法结构中特定的中心语和其指示词必须接受同一赋值项约束。这一分析可以将不同语言中存在句的不同表现归结为对事件空项进行赋值的可用手段不同。

From a cross-linguistic perspective,the Locative Existential Configuration(LEC)typically includes an obligatory reading of weakness on the post-verbal argument.This restriction is found in a series of languages,including English,Spanish,Hebrew,and Mandarin.Such a constraint is generally viewed as a default requirement of the construction itself,but it still calls for a systematic explanation in the syntactic derivation.In this paper I propose a different analysis of LEC on the syntax level by resorting to the analysis of Slavic perfective prefixes in Borer(2005),which requires the DP specifier of a Slavified head to be bound by the same range assigner to the head.Under the proposed analysis,the cross-linguistically different syntactic behaviours of LEC,such as the requirement of overt locative phrase and the role of aspect in the weak interpretation of the argument,can all be reduced to the available patterns of licensing the event head in different languages.