If条件句句法语义特征的语体倾向性研究

The syntactic and semantic genre orientation of ifconditionals

英语条件句是句法、语义接口的重要语法现象,是语法研究的核心议题之一,其使用是否具有语体倾向性,少有人涉及。本研究基于当代英语平衡语料库,考察4种语体中if条件句句法和语义层面差异。数据显示:1.If条件句在4种语体中所占比例依次为学术>新闻>小说>通用;2.条件句中时体及情态对4种语体吸引力各有不同;3.假设及开放条件句在4种语体中比例差异较大。以上结果证实if条件句具有较强语体依赖性,语体间相似度在频率与形式语义两个方面体现不同特点。频率上,学术与通用处在两极,处于中间的新闻与小说最为相近;但形式及语义上,通用与学术最为相似,而小说与新闻较为类似。

If-conditionals in English,at the interface between syntax and semantics,are a core issue in grammatical studies.Few studies have touched upon genre dependency of if-conditionals.This paper analyzed two CLAWS-tagged English corpora(i.e.Crown and CLOB)to explore the syntactic and semantic features of if-conditionals across four genres.Data analysis shows that:1)The percentages of if-conditionals in four genres are ranked as follows:learned discourse>press>fiction>general prose;2)tense,aspect and modality representations of if-conditionals also differ across the four genres;3)the distributions of open and hypothetical conditionals across the four genres vary greatly.It is therefore concluded that if-conditionals have a comparatively high-degree of genre dependency.However,similarities among genres in terms of frequency and syntax-semantics were also observed.As to frequency,learned discourse and general prose lie on different ends of the continuum,while press and fiction in the middle show great similarities.As to syntactic and semantic perspectives of if-conditionals,learned discourse and general prose are quite similar,as compared with press and fiction.