汉语动宾复合词的及物性及其用法差异——基于语料库驱动方法的对比研究

The transitivity of Mandarin Chinese VO compounds and variations on their employment:A corpus-driven comparative study

复合词的及物性是语法研究中一个极具挑战性的题目。根据模块理论(Modularity Theory),复合词既然成词,其及物性应该取决于词义,与构词架构不会有直接的关系。但从以往汉语动宾复合动词的研究中观察到,这些复合词倾向于不接宾语。现代汉语研究中对此现象的一个常见的假设和解释是,动宾复合词的内部结构中已经包含了一个宾语,因此不允许再在其后直接带另外一个宾语。但在实际使用中,动宾复合词带宾语在现代汉语中越来越多见,并且十分能产。这不仅表现在越来越多的动宾复合词逐渐转化为及物动词,也表现在可带宾语的类型越来越多。本项研究采用语料库驱动的实证研究方法,对语料库中的大陆媒体和台湾媒体材料中VO复合词的及物性差异进行了对比。通过对VO复合词及物性的比较发现,复合词带宾语的能力其实是一个倾向性的问题,涉及词汇选择和偏好。所谓“汉语动宾不接宾语”不过是语言演变过程中暂时的倾向,而不是语法理论需要解释的共性。

The transitivity of Mandarin Chinese VO compounds has triggered significant debates.According to the Modularity Theory,the transitivity of compounds should depend on verb semantics rather than syntactic structure.Previous researches claim that Chinese VO compounds often do not take direct object since the semantic“object”within the compound somehow blocks the direct object position.However,this is not supported by the fact that an increasing number of Mandarin Chinese VO compounds have become transitive and more objects can be preceded by a VO compound.This paper presents a corpus-driven comparative study on the transitivity of Chinese VO compounds in two varieties of Mandarin Chinese and suggests that,the transitivity of VO compounds is actually a matter of tendency and lexical preferences.