英汉介词语法化比较

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3.0 陈辉 2024-11-19 5 4 656.04KB 69 页 15积分
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摘要
语法化是语言演变的重要方面,是当代语言学(包括认知语言学)关注的重要
课题之一。语法化主要指一个词语或者若干个词语演变为语法语素的过程。从词
汇层面来说，即由实词演变为虚词或意义更虚的词（实词转变为功能词）。语法
化是语言演变的一种形式，在汉语里被称为“虚化”。
介词在汉语中作为虚词中一个封闭的小类，数量并不算多，但是他们使用频
率非常高。英语中的介词很多，虽然属于功能词，但和汉语介词一样，英语介词
也作用重大。给汉语介词与动词划界一直是个难题,英语介词与动词本无划界问
题,可自韩礼德提出介词可以像动词一样充当“过程”并把介词归入动词性成分
之后,英语动词与介词便有了纠缠。
本文从一个崭新的角度，从历时和共时两方面对英语和汉语的介词语法化进
行比较。总结出了英语和汉语介词语法化的异同。 主要研究了汉语中的“往”，
“在”，“和”，“将”和英语中的介词“V-ing” ，“at”，“with”，“to”等一些
代表性的介词。通过比较我们发现，汉语中大部分介词均来自于动词，而英语介
词来源则更丰富一些，有来自名词，动词，副词等。语法化的过程是:语言形式
的意义从实义向虚义转变,其功能从实词向语法功能词、附着成分、词缀、乃至
屈折形式演变。这一过程呈现单向、有序、抽象化和专门化等特征。高频率重复
和惯常化是语法化的必要条件,它的动因包括认知差异、语言接触、创新用法、
误解和误用及语用因素。通常认为,语法化的机制是类推和重新分析,演变的方式
有隐喻、转喻等。文中还讨论了认知、语用与语法化的关系 ,认为认知是语法化
的触发点和途径, 强调不同的认知和体验方式导致英语和汉语语法化的差异,语
用在语法化过程中具有固化的作用 ,认知和语用致使语法化发展具有不平衡性。
研究其动因和机制我们看出语法化理论着重于一个语言形式和结构如何受具体
语境的诱发而获得一项更为语法化功能的动态过程及其产生后对语言系统的影
响。
最后通过对介词语法化在英汉两种语言的比较得出结论,从而可以进一步指
导教学实践。例如把语法化在现阶段语言中的表现特征向学生说明的话会加深他
们对语言现象的理解。最后指出为更深入更全面理解语法化, 有必要选择更多的
介词或其他词性来进一步研究语法化。
关键词：语法化 介词 对比 动因 机制
ABSTRACT
Grammaticalization is a phenomenon of language change, in which content words such
as nouns and verbs change into function words such as prepositions and conjunctions.
New functional categories, tense, mood, and so forth, can emerge in a language structure
through grammaticalization. Then structure and language can become complex and rich.
Once underway, the course of grammaticalization is unidirectional and thus in principle
predictable. Nouns and verbs lose their categorical status and become prepositions,
auxiliaries and other grammatical forms. In fact, the creation of new grammatical
morphemes and structures is as common as the loss of old ones. It is important to
understand the process of and the cognitive abilities necessary for grammaticalization in
the context of origin and evolution of language.
As an important aspect of linguistic change, grammaticalization has long been one of
the important topics in contemporary linguistics (including cognitive linguistics).
Grammaticalization consists in the change of a linguistic form advancing from a lexical
to a grammatical or from a less grammatical to a more grammatical status, e.g. from a
derivative form to an inflectional one. The process features unidirectionality, sequence,
abstraction, gradualness, and specialization.
As an old word-class, prepositions have been studied in linguistics for a long time.
Some research in this field has been carried out by generative grammar, case grammar,
etc. it has been shown that these traditional approaches, in which the role of syntax is
central, do not reveal the true nature of the semantic structures of prepositions. By
comparing the grammaticalization’s process of prepositions in Chinese (zai, wang, he,
jiang, etc.) and In English (at, with, to, ---ing, etc.), this thesis reveals the common parts
and differences between them, and pointing out the reasons behind them. By examining
prepositional grammaticalization process, we find many principles both in Chinese and
English, there are mainly five in this thesis: divergence, persistence, decategorialization,
gradualness, frequency. Of course, the principles of grammaticalization are not limited to
these five mentioned above, while these five are common and important.
As we know, every linguistic phenomenon happened with reasons, so does
grammaticalization. As far as the reasons of grammaticalization concerned, we prefer to
use motivations and mechanisms to explain them. As to motivations, we first put it under
the perspective of cognitive linguistics. In cognitive linguistics, metaphor is a basic
cognitive mechanism in meaning extension. Spatial concepts are of great importance in
human conceptual systems and in their experiencing the world. Prepositions as spatial
expressions are highly representative of the nature of linguistic meaning. Cognitive
linguistics also emphasizes the importance of embodied mind, the cognitive experience
and cultural differences between nations. At the same time, we reveal motivations from
the perspective of pragmatics, the role of competing and frequency factors. These
motivations for embarking on this topic lie in the desire to explore the nature of
prepositional grammaticalization and its practical application.
Since grammar is not a static, closed or self-contained system, but is highly susceptible
to change and highly affected by language use. So when explaining the reasons of
grammaticalization, we shouldn’t ignore the importance of language use.
Since patterns of change cannot exist in speakers’ minds themselves, the more basic
universals must be the mechanisms that create the changes and they are so similar across
languages. Many of the very basic mechanisms that constitute the process of
grammaticalization are cognitive processes that are not necessarily restricted to language.
So there are common parts between prepositional grammaticalization in Chinese and
English.
The aim of this thesis serves for the practical application in teaching. For example, by
studying grammaticalization in Chinese and English, we can tell students how a certain
word originates and how it develops in Chinese and English. Finally, as to the future
prospects of this study, we can widen our research scope by analyzing more prepositions
and then making a comparison between Chinese and English. A systematic study of the
whole category will completely reveal the nature of prepositional grammaticalization.
Key words: grammaticalization, preposition, comparison, mechanism,
motivation
Contents
Chapter One: Introduction ...........................................................................................1
§1.1 Background Knowledge ................................................................................. 1
§1.2 The Data ......................................................................................................... 2
§1.3 Objective and Organization ............................................................................2
Chapter two: An Overview of Grammaticalization ...................................................4
§2.1 Definitions of Grammaticalization: ................................................................4
§2.2 The Recent Research on Grammaticalization in the West: ............................ 5
§2.3 Grammaticalizaton in China─ A Retrospect .................................................. 6
§2.4 Summary: ....................................................................................................... 7
Chapter Three: Grammaticalization of Prepositions .................................................8
§3.1 Grammaticalization of Chinese Prepositions ................................................. 8
§3.1.1 “Zai”在................................................................................................. 8
§3.1.2 Wang 往.............................................................................................. 11
§3.1.3 He(和) .................................................................................................15
§3.2 Grammaticalization of English Prepositions ................................................18
§3.2.1 At ........................................................................................................ 18
§3.2.2 With .................................................................................................... 22
§3.2.3 To.........................................................................................................................25
§3.2.4. Beside(s) ............................................................................................28
§3.3. –Ing Form of Some Verbs (Absolute verbs →Prepositions) ....................... 29
§3.4 Summary ...................................................................................................... 31
Chapter Four: Comparison and Principles .............................................................. 32
§4.1.A Sketchy Comparison .................................................................................32
§4.1.1The common parts in Chinese and English ......................................... 32
§4.1.2 From Verbs to Prepositions ................................................................ 34
§4.1.3 From nouns to prepositions ………………………………………....36
§4.1.4 Common cline .................................................................................... 36
§4.2 Principles ...................................................................................................... 39
§4.2.1. Divergence Principle ......................................................................... 39
§4.2.2. Persistence Principle ......................................................................... 39
§4.2.3. Decategorialization principle ............................................................ 41
§4.2.4. Frequency principle ........................................................................... 41
§4.2.5. Gradual shift (Gradualness): ............................................................. 42
§4.3 Relations with Source Meaning: .................................................................. 44
§4.4. Summary ..................................................................................................... 44
Chapter Five: Reasons that Cause Grammaticalization ......................................... 45
§5.1 Motivations ...................................................................................................45
§5.1.1 Cognitive Perspective .........................................................................45
§5.1.2 Pragmatic Perspective ........................................................................ 52
§5.1.3. Competing Motivation ...................................................................... 53
§5.2. Mechanisms .................................................................................................54
§5.3. Language use ...............................................................................................55
§5.4. Frequency factor ..........................................................................................56
§5.5. Summary ..................................................................................................... 57
Chapter Six: Summary and Practical Application ...................................................58
§6.1. Summary ..................................................................................................... 58
§6.2. Practical Application ................................................................................... 58
BIBLIOGERAPHY .....................................................................................................60
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................. 64
Article(s) Published During Academic Years………………………………………65
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................66
Chapter one: introduction
1
Chapter One: Introduction
§1.1 Background Knowledge
Language, as it was, is in a state of perpetual flux. Every living language, as
Bolinger(1981:4) states, is in a state of dynamic equilibrium.
Neo-grammarians and de Saussure identified three major types of language change:
the Sound change; Analogy; and Borrowing (i.e. Contact-induced phenomena). But
Meillet identified a fourth type of language change in The significance of Meillet’s
essay i.e. grammaticalization. And he set a standard to treat grammaticalization as
something other than contact-induced phenomena (such as borrowing).
The term Grammaticalization is used in a broader sense now, roughly speaking,
grammaticalization is the gradual drift in a grammar towards tighter structures and less
freedom in the use of linguistic expressions. It has at least three levels: Content words
become function words, free morphemes become clitics or affixes, and syntactic
constructions become subject to stronger constraints. This thesis only focuses on
lexical items, specifically, only on prepositions and prepositional phrases.
Grammaticalization is a universal phenomenon in the developing course of language
and an important self-controlling and self-perfecting mechanism of the internal part of
language. From certain content, we can consider grammaticalization as a kind of
conventionalization, maybe if we use this word “ conventionalization “ , it will become
more easily for these who don’t know grammaticalization to understand its meaning.
Just because of the phenomena of grammaticalization, it makes the same lexical unit
occur in linguistic expressions as an instance of different grammatical classes, if
conventionalization allows for it. That is, they can function as adverbs, verbs,
auxiliaries or prepositions.
Chinese and English are languages with a long history and distinct individuality.
During their long-term developing courses, they have brought so many achievements
of lexical grammaticalization that cause themselves to assume some formal features
and phasic individuality. They have accumulated abundant corpora for the study of
grammaticalization.
As an old word-class, prepositions have been studied in linguistics for a long time. It
Prepositional Grammaticalization: Chinese VS English
2
has long been the concern of generative grammar, case grammar, lexical functional
grammar and translations, etc. It has been shown that these traditional approaches, in
which the role of syntax is central, do not reveal the true nature of the semantic
structures of prepositions. And they failed to compare English prepositions with
Chinese prepositions in the perspective of grammaticalization.
Grammaticalization is a field attracting increasing interest. A lot of efforts have been
spent to study the grammaticalization phenomena both in Chinese and English. For
example, Hopper and Traugott’s Grammaticalization,Traugott and Heine’s Approaches
to Grammaticalization (1991). Though such books are of great significance for laying
a foundation for reestablishment of grammaticalization as an important direction of
modern linguistic research, they fail to make a comparison between propositional
grammaticalization in Chinese and English. This thesis will study prepositions in a
creative perspective which explores propositional grammaticalization in Chinese and
English, with the goal of making contributions to the current grammaticalization study.
§1.2 The Data
The Chinese data used in this thesis are mainly from Old Chinese such as OBI and
Pre-Qin documents; the English data are mainly from The Oxford English Dictionary,
(Second Edition). Occasionally, examples from later periods also are quoted. Examples
of OBI are mainly from Guo Moruo’s YinqiCuibian, Since the pronunciations of many
characters in the OBI are still not known or not unanimously acknowledged in the
literature, we will only provide a word for word translation and a free translation for
the inscriptions. And these translations are taken from Yan Yaoliang’s doctoral thesis:
The grammaticalization of Yu from a verb to a functional word
§1.3 Objective and Organization
In this paper, we will study propositional grammaticalization in Chinese and English,
emphasizing on the cognitive motivations in them. We will tentatively answer the
following questions:
1. What’s the difference between propositional grammaticalization in Chinese and
English?
摘要：

摘要语法化是语言演变的重要方面,是当代语言学(包括认知语言学)关注的重要课题之一。语法化主要指一个词语或者若干个词语演变为语法语素的过程。从词汇层面来说，即由实词演变为虚词或意义更虚的词（实词转变为功能词）。语法化是语言演变的一种形式，在汉语里被称为“虚化”。介词在汉语中作为虚词中一个封闭的小类，数量并不算多，但是他们使用频率非常高。英语中的介词很多，虽然属于功能词，但和汉语介词一样，英语介词也作用重大。给汉语介词与动词划界一直是个难题,英语介词与动词本无划界问题,可自韩礼德提出介词可以像动词一样充当“过程”并把介词归入动词性成分之后,英语动词与介词便有了纠缠。本文从一个崭新的角度，从历时和共...

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