从“施宾”小句及其英译看汉英主客离合特质

Integration and Separation of Subject and Object Between Chinese and English:A Case Study of“Agentive Object”Clauses and Their English Translation

“施宾”小句是汉语中较为独特的一类形义匹配现象,其产生机制及根源一直是语言学领域的一个重要研究话题。本文从功能视角,对比参照英译文,探讨“施宾”小句的语义配置及句法结构特点,并通过哲学思维层面的阐释,力图揭示此类非常规结构产生的根源。研究发现,“施宾”小句中各句法成分所能容纳的语义角色较为多样,其语义—句法配置偏离语言常规,是“汉有英无”的一种语言现象。这种差异根源于汉英民族哲学基本思维方式特质:汉语主张天人合一、主客融合,语言表征上无需借助形态标记就可实现语义与句法的灵活搭配,编码和解码依赖主体和语境;英语注重本体追问、主客分离,语言结构受语法规则的制约,自足性强,编码和解码对主体和语境的依赖较弱。

“Agentive object”clauses are a unique type of syntax-semantics matches in Chinese,and their mechanism and motivation have always been a significant research topic in the linguistic field.From a functional perspective,this article discusses the semantic and syntactic structures of“agentive object”clauses with reference to their English translation,aiming to reveal the underlying causes of such uncanonical structures.The results show that the syntactic components of“agentive object”clauses can accommodate various semantic roles,and that the matching of syntactic components and their semantic roles deviates from language norms.This particular linguistic phenomenon does not exist in English,which can be ascribed to the discrepancies in the basic philosophical thinking modes of Chinese and English.Chinese values the unity of man and nature and the integration of subject and object.This brings about flexible semantic-syntactic matching without reference to formal grammatical means.In other words,in the process of encoding and decoding,the addresser and addressee of Chinese mainly depend on subject and context.English emphasizes ontological inquiry and the separation of subject and object.This brings about much more restrained semantic-syntactic matching with reference to formal grammatical means.In other words,in the process of encoding and decoding,the addresser and addressee of English mainly depend on formal grammatical means.