英语主位结构的语法化 内容简介

本书从语法化的视角探讨了英语中的主位结构，主要描述了古英语、中古英语和现代英语时期主位结构的特点并分；析了主位标记性的历史性迁移，从语法化的视角考察了几种重要主位转换手段的形成过程。研究得出结论：英语中的主位标记性经历了语法化的过程，在这一过程中主语被语法化为唯一的无标记主位成分英语中一些语法结构形成的动因i是主位表达的需要。

英语主位结构的语法化 本书特色

本书从语法化的视角探讨了英语中的主位结构，主要描述了古英语、中古英语和现代英语时期主位结构的特点并分析了主位标记性的历史性迁移，从语法化的视角考察了几种重要主位转换手 形成过程，研究得出结论：英语中的主位标记性经历史语法化的过，在这一过程中主语被语法化为唯一的无标记主位成分，英语中一些语法结构形成成的动因是主位表达的需要。

英语主位结构的语法化英语主位结构的语法化前言

前言
本书从语法化的视角探讨了英语中的主位结构，主要描述了古英语、中古英语和现代英语时期主位结构的特点并分析了主位标记性的历史性迁移，从语法化的视角考察了几种重要主位转换手段的形成过程。研究得出结论：英语中的主位标记性经历了语法化的过程，在这一过程中主语被语法化为唯一的无标记主位成分；英语中一些语法结构形成的动因是主位表达的需要。
语言学研究中共时方法和历时方法长久以来被严格区分。不过，语言学中*近的动向要求这两个研究方法拥有同等的地位。在这个背景下，本书将共时与历时两种研究方法进行了结合。本书首先对英语主位结构进行共时的描述，在共时描述的基础上进行历时的分析。
本书中采用的理论和方法主要涉及两个领域：主位结构理论和语法化理论。在本书第二章，我们对这些理论和方法进行了简要的回顾。“主位”这个概念不同于“主语”、“话题”和“已知信”，这是因为主位的定义完全基于它在句中的位置：主位是句子的**个成分。主位结构和语法结构相互关联，因为主位化必须依赖于语法的手段。主位化不仅依赖于一门语言所能提供的语法手段，而且还受制于这些语法手段。为主位化目的而使用的语法手段可以被称做“主位转换结构”或“主位化手段”。本书简单讨论了六种主位转换结构：(1)
话题化，(2)被动结构，(3)tough移动，(4)主语提升和宾语提升，(5)外置，(6)分裂句和拟似分裂句。
语法化概念已经从它传统的定义扩展为更宽泛的定义。语法化传统的定义指实词失去词汇意义成为具有语法功能的词或词缀的过程，广义的定义指一个形式或结构变得固定或必要的过程。本书所说的语法化是它广义的定义。
本书对两个粗略划分的英语发展历史阶段(早英语和现代英语)的主位结构进行了共时描述。在早期英语中，相对自由的语序使得几乎每一个句子成分都有可能自然地出现在句首位置，但是不同的句子成分还是具有不同的位置上的倾向。主语尽管有时也会出现在句中或句末位置，但是它强烈地倾向于出现在句首，尤其是代词充当的主语和较短的主语。本书比较了句子成分不同的位置倾向，发现主语*倾向于出现在句首，而*少出现在句首的成分包括间接宾语、宾语补足语和一些状语。根据这个发现，本书得出结论：在早期英语主位标记性的层级结构中，主语是无标记性程度*高的，而间接宾语、宾语补足语和一些状语是标记性程度*高。本书还介绍了早期英语中的主位转换结构，包括话题化、被动结构和外置。
对于现代英语主位结构的共时描述显示现代英语中SvO语序的固定使得主语成为唯一的无标记主位。任何其他句子成分如果出现在句首的话都是标记性主位，其中，当动词出现在句首时，是标记性程度*高的成分。现代英语中的主位转换结构包：被动结构、tough移动、外置、分裂句和拟似分裂句。
在对早期英语和现代英语的主位结构分别进行了共时描述的基础上，本书对主位标记性和主位转换结构进行了历时分析。研究发现，英语中无标记主位的语法化和英语中SVO语序的语法化密切关联；英语中被动结构、tough移动、外置、分裂句和拟似分裂句．这些Chapter A Synchronic
Account of Thematic Str-ucture in Early English
The aim of this chapter is, on the one hand, to give a descriptiveoverview of the major important features of the hematic constituentsof Early English and to chematize the hierarchy of markedness ofthese thematic constituents, and, on the other hand, to give an ac-count o~ the thematic transformations, or the hematizing devices inEarly English for the purpose of comparing them with those in ModernEnglish.
To facilitate our discussion, we tart with a general observation ofthe historical stages of the English language, which has undergone anunbroken evolution of fifteen hundred years. Within this development,however, it can be agreed on that the history of English can be recog-
nized as three main periods. Within each of the periods it is possible torecognize certain broad characteristics that can mark off that period.
According to A. Baugh and T. Cable's work, A History of theEnglish Language, the dividing of the three periods is described as fol-lows:
The period from 450 to 1150 is known as Old English. It is<节选内容 >=重要的主位转换结构的形成和许多因素有关，包括语序的语法化、屈折形式的消失、交际的有效性和成分的重量等。
本书尝试将语法化的理论和方法应用于英语主位结构的研究中去，并且尝试把共时描述和历时分析相结合。语法化理论研究的前景非常广阔，因为语法化的理论可以应用于语言学研究广泛的领域，
使我们更深刻地理解语言变化的本质，也可以使我们在对比语言学领域取得更多的成果。
葛忆翔
2007年9月
Chapter 3A Synchronic Account of Thematic Structure in Early English41
sometimes described as "the period of full inflections" (Baugh and Ca-
ble, 1951: 51), since during most of this period the endings of the
noun, the adjective, and the verb were well preserved.
From 1150 to 1500 the language is known as Middle English.
During this period the inflections, which had begun to break down to-
wards the end of the Old English period, became greatly reduced,
and, consequently, it is known as "the period of leveled inflections"
(Baugh and Cable, 1951: 51). The Middle English period is marked
by momentous changes in the English language, changes more exten-
sive and fundamental than those that have taken place at any time be-
fore or since. Many surface syntactic markers had been lost, which, as
we will see later, would exert great influence on the English grammar,
including the constituents in the initial position of a sentence.
It has often been said that, while Old English is virtually a foreign
language to present-day speakers of English, Middle English writings,
such as those of Chaucer, Gower and Malory, do not confront modern
readers with any major syntactic obstacles to comprehension. There
occurred change in many areas of grammar between the Old and Mid-
dle English periods. While Old English had a rather elaborate inflec-
tional system for both verbs and nouns, much of this had withered
away by Early Middle English, and further reductions took place in the
course of the Middle English period.
The language since 1500 is called Modern English. By the time
we reached this stage in the development a large part of the original in-
flectional system had disappeared entirely and it is therefore known as
"the period of lost inflections" (Baugh and Cable, 1951: 52).
The period of Old English and Middle English together is known
as the period of Early English, spanning more than 1000 years from
the year 450 to 1500. This is such a long period that it is not possible
for us to make an exhaustive account of all the characteristics of the
English language during this period. And what is more important for
us to understand is that the changes in grammar never stopped along
the period; therefore, it is hard to describe what Old English or Mid-
dle English is like. In this book, it is only possible for us to give a very
general account of the thematic features of the two periods, using the
typical examples to represent significant patterns of thematic structures
in the two periods. Besides, due to the writer's lack of phonological
and morphological knowledge of Early English, it is extremely difficult
to make a quantitative analysis of any corpus of Early English, al-
though properly conducted date processing of corpus will prove to be
most convincing and effective in a research of this kind. We have to re-
ly on second hand resources to serve our research purpose. On the one
hand, we resort to the ready-made observations made by linguists in
this field supplemented by examples to serve our purpose; on the other
hand, we resort to the statistics provided by Kohonen (1979), who
has carried out a data processing of Early English texts from 1000 to
1200 A.D. to account for word order change and the development of
thematic structure. Kohonen decides on this specific period to be repre-
sentative of Early English in that "the fixation of English word order
largely took place before 1200" (Kohonen, 1979: 75). He chooses on-
ly three texts: Aelfric's First Series of Catholic Homilies ( = CH),
Vices and Virtues ( = VM), and $awles Warde ( = SW). The three
texts were respectively written approximately in 992,1200,and
1230. We rely on the statistics provided by Kohonen to account for the
issues concerned in this book.
The grammatical system of Early English is quite different from
that of Modern English. It is the grammatical system that distinguish-
es Early English from Modem English fundamentally. Among the nu-
merous aspects of the grammatical system, there is one point that de-
serves our attention--the constituents in the leftmost position. In this

英语主位结构的语法化 目录

英语主位结构的语法化 作者简介

作者简介
葛忆翔(1 977一)，女，江苏南通人，2。06年6月毕业于上海外国语大学英语语言文学专业，获英语语言文学博士学位，上海外国语大
学英语学院教师，主要从事英语语法教学及语法教学法研究，学术专长为系统功能语法及语法化理论。

英语主位结构的语法化 目录

英语主位结构的语法化 作者简介

作者简介
葛忆翔(1 977一)，女，江苏南通人，2。06年6月毕业于上海外国语大学英语语言文学专业，获英语语言文学博士学位，上海外国语大
学英语学院教师，主要从事英语语法教学及语法教学法研究，学术专长为系统功能语法及语法化理论。

英语主位结构的语法化 作者简介

作者简介
葛忆翔(1 977一)，女，江苏南通人，2。06年6月毕业于上海外国语大学英语语言文学专业，获英语语言文学博士学位，上海外国语大
学英语学院教师，主要从事英语语法教学及语法教学法研究，学术专长为系统功能语法及语法化理论。