谈配对与配重——汉语光杆条件句韵律-句法的实验研究

Pairing and prosodic weight:An experimental study of the prosodic syntax of Chinese bare conditionals

汉语有一类光杆条件句如“谁亲谁,谁娶谁”,通过疑问词配对构成,疑问词表任指,可以形成ABAB(“如果一个男的亲了一个女的,那个男的就要娶了那个女的”)和ABBA(“如果女的亲了男的,那个男的就要娶了那个女的”)的配对模式,再叠加疑问词的疑问用法,理解起来更加复杂。本文通过录音实验和感知实验证实,韵律是限制和区分光杆条件句不同配对模式和句类的重要手段,其句法、语义配对和韵律配重存在一致性,并通过界面相互映射,共同影响光杆条件句的产出和理解,对语言教学和二语习得具有重要启示。

Chinese bare conditionals such as “Shei qin shei,shei qu shei” are formed through the pairing of the wh-words shei in the antecedent clause and in the consequent clause.When these shei are paired as ABAB(“Shei_(A) qin shei_(B),shei_(A) qu shei_(B)”),the sentence is interpreted as ‘If a man kisses a woman,the man will marry the woman.’ and when paired as ABBA,it is interpreted as ‘If a women kisses a man,the man will marry the woman.’.On top of shei’s existential quantifier(‘someone’) interpretation,it can also have interrogative interpretation(‘who’),which renders the sentence even more complicated.Prosody is believed to play an important role in sentence comprehension,however,it remains to be answered how exactly it impacts the pairing of bare conditionals as such.By conducting a productions study and a perception study,we find that prosodic weight on shei plays a crucial role in the pairing and interpretations of the bare conditional and that prosody also encodes the clause types of the bare conditional differently.Syntax,semantic pairing and prosodic weight map to each other through interface and contribute to the production and comprehension of bare conditionals.Our study also sheds light on language teaching and second language acquisition.