句末助词“哟”的分布规律与语义关联图

On the Distribution of the Sentence-final Particle Yo(哟)

本文以语义语法的理论和方法为指导,细致描写并严格验证句末助词“哟”的句子功能分布规律,提取并勾勒出包含轻松心态、亲和态度、已有语义和提醒功能的“哟”语法意义及其语义关联图。首先,综述前人对“哟”的形成原因与语法意义的研究,并指明语法意义的独立性及其所制约的语法形式的规律性是句末助词“哟”的字形规范及其语音稳固的语法基础。其次,通过全面描写并验证句末助词“哟”与陈述句、祈使句、感叹句和疑问句及其语义类型的选择或排斥关系,揭示“哟”的分布规律;最后,把句末助词“哟”的语法意义概括为说话者基于轻松心态,以亲和的人际态度把已有的事物、行为和情感等语义信息提供给听话者以唤醒其注意,据此勾勒出“哟”的语义关联图,并通过同现词语、复句分布和语用焦点来验证轻松心态、亲和态度及其提醒功能。

This paper presents a thorough investigation into the sentence-final particle yo,by providing a detailed description of its distribution based on real data from corpus,a clear generalization about its semantic compatibility and syntactic co-occurrence patterns with regard to various sentence types,modals and adverbs,and a principled explanation of these properties within the framework of semantic grammar.The main findings are that yo represents the speaker’s judgement on the proposition of the sentence to which it is attached,as well as the speaker’s way of presenting his or her idea to the listener based on the relationship between the two sides.The discussion starts with a summary of previous discussions and analyses on the origin and properties of yo,and proceeds to exam the restrictions on the attachment of yo to various types of sentences.The conclusion is that yo can be attached to declarative sentences,but only to those bearing information which is known to the speaker and is considered must-know to the listener.Yo can be attached to imperative sentences,but only to those representing the speaker’s urge or plea to the listener for fulfilling some duty or obligation.Yo can also be attached to most exclamative sentences,to indicate that the speaker invites the listener to echo the passion or emotion embodied in the sentences.Yo can be attached to these three types of sentences but not to interrogative sentences.The co-occurrence pattern is apparently determined by the compatibility of yo and the proposition represented by these sentences,in that yo is only compatible with propositions bearing information already known to the speaker but not with propositions seeking unknown information.In certain cases,yo is attached to sentences that look like wh-questions or A-not-A questions,and these are not real questions demanding answers but are the speaker’s special way of presenting known information to the listener,namely,as some kind of rhetoric questions.The semantic compatibility is also responsible for the co-occurrence of yo and certain kinds of lexical items in the sentences it is attached to.One of them is words depicting happy mood,such as qingsong‘light-hearted’and fengqu‘humorously’,as well as words describing affection,such as guanqie‘caring’and roushengxiyu‘with soft voice’.On the other hand,semantic compatibility is also the reason why yo cannot co-occur with certain types of words or phrases.When an adverb for uncertainty or hesitation appears in a sentence,such as yexu‘perhaps’orpengqiao‘accidently’,yo will not be attached to that sentence.If an adverb of confirmation occurs in a sentence,such as mingming‘obviously’or biran*inevitably’,it will also prevent yo from attaching to that sentence.In addition to share known information,to attach yo to some declarative sentences,some exclamative sentences or most imperative sentences is also the speaker’s way to show his or her fondness to the listener or as a special means to draw the listener’s attention to certain facts,which the speaker considers crucial to the listener.This communicative function sets yo apart from other sentence final particles with different meaning like a,ba or bei,since each of them has a distinctive function in communication.