现代汉语的时系统

Tense system of Mandarin Chinese

现代汉语的时系统不能完全走Reichenbach(1947)或Comrie(1985)的时理论道路。本文从事件时间、参照时间和说话时间之间的两两关系出发,讨论了以下内容:第一,基于对汉语句法成分的观察,指出“相对时”理论并不适用于汉语,汉语的事件时间与参照时间关系表达“体”意义,这印证了金立鑫(2008)的主张;第二,分析参照时间理论存在的问题,明确了说话时间是陈述功能和最新视点功能的复合体,论证事件时间与说话时间可以构成基本的时类型;第三,指出说话时间与参照时间具有视点分化关系,说话时间可以对参照时间定位从而表达时意义。最后,根据定位对象是事件时间还是参照时间的不同,区分汉语时间定位方式的直接性与间接性,将汉语的时系统调整为“直接时—间接时”系统,为建立基于汉语时间定位方式的详尽时体理论做准备。

Tense system of Mandarin Chinese requires a reevaluation as it does not fully conform to the tense theories of Reichenbach(1947)and Comrie(1985).Against this background,this paper begins by scrutinizing the pair relationship between event time,reference time and speech time,and setting the stage to address several crucial points.Firstly,through analysis of the syntactic components within Mandarin Chinese,the study argues that the theory of“relative tense”is inapplicable to this linguistic context.The relationship between event time and reference time is to express the meaning of aspect,corroborating the propositions proposed by Jin(2008);Second,this paper clarifies the relationship between speech time and reference time,revealing that speech time serves as a composite of the declarative intent and the latest point-of-perspective.It further suggests that speech time is the fundamental reference time,showing that event time and speech time form the basic tense types;Third,this study highlights the differentiation in viewpoints between speech time and reference time,illustrating how speech time can locate reference time to convey temporal significations;Lastly,depending on whether the target of temporal location is event time or reference time,this paper distinguishes between direct and indirect methods of temporal location,proposing“direct-indirect tense”system.This framework aims to set the groundwork for establishing a comprehensive theory of tense and aspect based on the characteristics of temporal location in Mandarin Chinese.