现代英汉进行体概念和功能的时空性差异

Temporal/Spatial Differences in the Concepts and Functions of Progressive Aspect in Modern English and Chinese

通过可比语料库,本文对比分析现代英汉进行体的概念与功能。研究发现:(1)英汉进行体都可表示动作行为的持续进行,但英语进行体主要表示在特定时间点(段)的进行和持续,其结构是“时”“体”结合体,重在时间,而汉语进行体除了表示动作持续进行,还可表示状态的持续,其主要标记“在”和“着”均不关切时间,只和空间联系密切;(2)英语进行体在新闻语体的分布略高于汉语进行体,而在其他语体的分布均低于汉语进行体;(3)英语进行体大部分在主句中,作为焦点,其高频词多为动态动词,而汉语进行体大部分为状语或用于存在句,作为背景,其高频词动与静无多大差别。英汉进行体的这些差异根源于英民族的强时间性思维和汉民族的强空间性思维这一本质性差异。探究英汉进行体的这种民族思维差异,会裨益于中国英语学习者对英语进行体的习得。

Based on comparable corpora,this article makes a contrastive analysis of the concepts and functions of progressive aspect in modern English and Chinese.The main findings are presented as follows:(1)Though both can represent the continuous progress of an action,the English progressive aspect mainly refers to the progressiveness and continuation of the action within a limited time,and its structure is a combination of“tense”and“aspect”,with its focus on time;while the Chinese progressive aspect can indicate the continuation of a state in addition to the continuous progress of an action,and neither of the main markers“zai”and“zhe”is concerned with time,but both are closely related to space.(2)The distribution in the press genre of English progressive aspect is higher than that of Chinese progressive aspect,but its distributions in other genres are all lower than its Chinese counterpart.(3)Most structures of English progressive aspect are in the main clauses as the focus,and the high-frequency words in English progressive aspect are mainly dynamic verbs;whereas a considerable number of progressive aspect structures in Chinese are used as adverbials in sentences or are located in existential sentences as backgrounds,and there is no obvious difference between dynamic verbs and static ones among high-frequency words in Chinese progressive aspect structure.The differences between English progressive aspect and its Chinese counterpart are rooted in the essential difference between the pro-temporal way of English thinking and the pro-spatial mode of Chinese thinking,the investigation of which can be surely beneficial for Chinese learners to acquire English progressive aspect.