淺議主語It-外置結(jié)構(gòu)的話語限制條件

摘 要: 在英語中，外置結(jié)構(gòu)是一種很常見的語言現(xiàn)象。很顯然，很多It-外置結(jié)構(gòu)都有與之對應(yīng)的非外置結(jié)構(gòu)。作為兩種不同的結(jié)構(gòu)形式，其話語功能必然不同，而兩種結(jié)構(gòu)之間的轉(zhuǎn)換不僅受到結(jié)構(gòu)條件的限制，也要受到話語條件的限制。本文從語用的角度，通過對It-外置結(jié)構(gòu)和相對的非外置結(jié)構(gòu)的話語限制條件的分析和比較，表明把話語因素納入句法結(jié)構(gòu)考慮中也是相當(dāng)必要的。

關(guān)鍵詞: 主語It-外置結(jié)構(gòu) 非外置結(jié)構(gòu) 分析比較 話語限制

外置結(jié)構(gòu)在英語中非常普遍。所謂外置結(jié)構(gòu)，簡單地說，就是其中的某個結(jié)構(gòu)成分因被外置而出現(xiàn)在一個非常規(guī)(noncanonical)位置上。外置轉(zhuǎn)換所產(chǎn)生的句子根據(jù)外置成分的不同可分為不同的類型，如It-外置、pp-外置和關(guān)系從句外置;根據(jù)外置成分所附于的位置不同又可分為主語外置外置和賓語外置。就其It-外置結(jié)構(gòu)而言，該類外置結(jié)構(gòu)中至少都有一個分句(限定性時態(tài)分句或非限定性不定式分句)充當(dāng)主語或者直接賓語，但它們又都不出現(xiàn)在常規(guī)的(canonical)主語或賓語位置上，而通常是放在句子的句末位置上;常規(guī)的主語或賓語位置則由一個無實質(zhì)語義內(nèi)容的結(jié)構(gòu)填充詞(it)占據(jù)。無論是傳統(tǒng)語法還是生成語法都曾對各種外置結(jié)構(gòu)作過不少論述，特別是就其結(jié)構(gòu)的移位操作和生成機(jī)制展開過重大而深遠(yuǎn)的探討。本文從話語語境的角度出發(fā)，重點對主語It-外置結(jié)構(gòu)的話語限制條件進(jìn)行比較和分析。

一、話語限制

語句僅從語言自身是無法完全理解的，只有基于語言，在話語語境中才能較準(zhǔn)確地理解其深刻意義。離開語境孤立的看句子，不顧及其上下文的話限制條件，就很難準(zhǔn)確地理解其真正的含義。例如:

(1)Coming home from school that dark winter’s day so long ago.I was filled with anticipation.I had a new issue of my favorite sports magazine tucked under my arm，and the house to myself.Dad was at work，my sister was away，and Mother wouldn’t be home from her new job for and hour.

文中“I was filled with anticipation”字面意思是“心中充滿了期待”，但讀者不能理解，不禁問“期待什么?”要理解其真正內(nèi)涵，就要依靠語境，從上下文可以看出，anticipation是指reading his favorite sports magazine without being disturbed。上句的意思為:“我滿以為可以一個人安安靜靜地在家里閱讀心愛的體育雜志。”文中“the house to myself”的理解也需要語境，從上下文中知道，爸爸上班去了，妹妹不在家，媽媽剛找到工作，還得一個小時才下班回家。由此可知“the house to myself”的含義是“家里就我一個人”。

在語言實際運用中，外置也不是任何時候都是強(qiáng)制性的。僅依靠生成語法的句子結(jié)構(gòu)分析，我們常常無法確定是選用外置結(jié)構(gòu)還是非外置結(jié)構(gòu)，分句結(jié)構(gòu)外置與否還受到各種復(fù)雜的語境因素的影響。話語條件存在于特定的語境中，因此，選用外置結(jié)構(gòu)與非外置結(jié)構(gòu)的時候要充分考慮到其上下文中的話語條件，必須結(jié)合具體的語境來分析。我們來看這個外置結(jié)構(gòu)的句子:

(2)It was a pity that there was no gold left in the mine when they arrived there.

很顯然，這個外置的That-從句結(jié)構(gòu)較長較復(fù)雜，且含有新的或較重要的信息。通過That-從句的后置，使含有重要信息和新信息的That-從句位于句子末尾信息的位置，使之得到了強(qiáng)調(diào)。除了起到平衡句子結(jié)構(gòu)的作用，避免頭重腳輕外，同時也喚起了受話人求知的好奇心，從而達(dá)到了較好的交際效果。不難看出，外置結(jié)構(gòu)與否不單單涉及句子內(nèi)部成分的調(diào)整。由于句子都不是孤立存在的，而是相互關(guān)聯(lián)、相互制約的。因些充分考慮句子上下文語境中的話語限制條件是至關(guān)重要的。

二、外置結(jié)構(gòu)的話語限制

鮑林格(Bolinger)(1977)指出“當(dāng)主題已經(jīng)被提及”后可以選用外置結(jié)構(gòu)(P68)。在對大量的語料進(jìn)行比較分析的基礎(chǔ)上，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)如果That-從句和不定式從句的內(nèi)容來自于前面的話語語境或者與先前的話語內(nèi)容直接相關(guān)，則從句可以保留在原來的主語位置，即無需外置。否則，外置就不可避免了。看以下例句:

(3)[...]But we must never forget，most of the appropriate heroes and their legends were created overnight，to answer immediate needs.

[...]Most of the legends that are created to fan the fires of patriotism are essentially propagandistic and are not folk legends at all.

[...]Naturally，such scholarly facts are of little concern to the man trying to make money or fan patriotism by means of folklore.That much of what he calls folklore is the result of beliefs carefully sown among the people with the conscious aim of producing a desired mass emotional reaction to a particular situation or set of situations is irrelevant.

(F.Brown 19 0490-0870.CF.Miller，2001)

在這個例句中，斜體部分的That-從句是一個相當(dāng)復(fù)雜的句子主語，緊跟著一個非常簡單的謂語成分。像這樣非外置的句子結(jié)構(gòu)放在句首肯定是不恰當(dāng)?shù)模司湓谶@樣的上下文語境中卻相當(dāng)?shù)淖匀弧Ｒ驗榫渥又髡Z的內(nèi)容在上文中已經(jīng)被引出，此主語從句只是對上文內(nèi)容的一個總結(jié)，That-從句不進(jìn)行外置可以和上文聯(lián)系得更加緊密，使得語義能夠更快、更準(zhǔn)確地被讀者理解。

(4)“He will be here before long now，”said Van Helsing，who had been consulting his pocketbook.Nota bene，in Madam’s telegram he went south from Carfax.That means he went to cross the river，and he could only do so at slack of tide，which should be something before one o’clock.That he went south has a meaning for us.He is as yet only suspicious，and he went from Carfax first to the place where he would suspect interference least.You must have been at Bermondsey only a short time before him.That he is not here already shows that he went to Mile End next.

(Stoker，Dracula.CF.Miller，2001)

這篇短文中有兩個非外置的句子主語結(jié)構(gòu)。不難看出，第一個That-從句是前文已經(jīng)提及的話題，是一個直接的重復(fù)，無需用外置結(jié)構(gòu);第二個That-從句的內(nèi)容也可以直接從前面的話語中推斷出來，而且，因為存在賓語的句法原因，選用外置的句子主語結(jié)構(gòu)也是不允許的。因此，從這些非外置的限定That-從句來看，非外置主語成分要么是舊的話語內(nèi)容，要么可以從前面的語境中推斷出主句的信息。

(5)European Central Bank Row Won’t Be Last

PARIS——It is astonishing that the real questions about Europe’s new single currency，the euro，and about the new European Central Bank were never addressed during the 12-hour row among European governments that ended in Sunday’s sad compromise on the new bank’s president.Those questions are:Can this bank truly be independent?And.If it tried to be truly independent，could it survive?The answer to both clearly is “no”.

(Herald Tribune，7/May/98，first lines of the article)

很明顯，作為文章之首的句子，此斜體部分的That-從句如果放在句首不進(jìn)行外置(如(5)*)就很不貼切。因而更加理由充分地確證了先前的結(jié)論:That-主語從句不外置要么是舊的話語內(nèi)容，要么可以從前面的語境中推斷出主句的信息。而此句中句子主語內(nèi)容顯然是全新的，則外置就不可避免了。在語篇中，發(fā)話人為了突出主要信息，把表示已知信息的成分提到句首，而把含有重要信息的語言單位放在句末，這樣更符合人們從已知到未知的認(rèn)知心理和語言交際習(xí)慣用語，從而也就增強(qiáng)了語句的交際效果。

(5)*That the real questions about Europe’s new single currency，the euro，and about the new European Central Bank were never addressed during the 12-hour row among European governments that ended in Sunday’s sad compromise on the new bank’s president is astonishing.

再來分析幾個不定式結(jié)構(gòu)的話語條件:

(6)To what extent and in what ways did Christanity affect the United States of America in the nineteenth century?How far and in what fashion did it modify the new nation which was emerging in the midst of the forces shaping the revolutionary age?To what extent did it mould the morals and the social，economic，and political life and institutions of the country?A complete picture is impossible——partly because of the limitations of space，partly because millions of individuals who professed allegiance to the Christian faith data are unobtainable.Even more of an obstacle is the difficulty of separating the influence of Christianity from other factors.Although a complete picture cannot be given，we can indicate some aspects of life into which the Christian faith entered as at least one creative factor.At times we can say that it was the major factor.What in some ways was the most important aspect was the impact individually on the millions who constituted the nation.As we have seen，a growing proportion，although in 1914 still a minority，were members of churches.[...].Upon most of these Christianity had left an impress and through them had had a share in making the individual what he was.Yet to determine precisely to what extent and exactly in what ways any individual showed the effects of Christianity would be impossible.At best only an approximation could be arrived at.To generalize for the entire nation would be absurd.For instance，we cannot know whether even for church members the degree of conformity to Christian standards of morality increased or declined as the proportion of church members in the population rose.

(Brown corpus，D140010-0360.CF.Miller，2001)

例(6)短文中兩個非外置的不定式結(jié)構(gòu)也很明顯能從前面的話語中推斷得出來。我們再來看以下這個例句(7):

(7)“Will he die”?“Everybody does”.Ludie could be hateful.To speak of Papa dying was a sin.

(Brown Corpus.K061000-1010.CF.Miller，2001)

例句(7)中he和不定式結(jié)構(gòu)中的Papa是共指對象，也就是說這個非外置的不定式結(jié)構(gòu)也是總結(jié)上文語境中提出過的信息。

三、結(jié)語

通過以上對It外置結(jié)構(gòu)的話語語境的對比分析，我們認(rèn)為外置與非外置結(jié)構(gòu)的運用不能僅僅基于成分的句法考慮，還很大程度地取決于語境中的話語條件限制。根據(jù)大量的自然素材語料分析，話語條件制約著That-從句和不定式結(jié)構(gòu)的外置與否。外置與否很大程度上是一個語用問題而不是一個語法問題，語境因素對它起了根本的制約作用。通常情況下，非外置結(jié)構(gòu)要求主語成分的內(nèi)容是話語舊信息或者可以直接從上文推斷出來;如果主語內(nèi)容是新信息，則外置結(jié)構(gòu)就不可避免了。

參考文獻(xiàn):

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[2]Bolinger，D.Meaning and Form[M].Harlow:Longman，1977.

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[4]Koopman，H. Sportiche，D.The position of subjects [J].Lingua，1991，(85):211-285.

[5]Miller，P.Discourse constraints on (non)extraposition from subject in English [J].Lingusistics，2001，(39):683-701.

[6]Reinhart，T.On the position of extraposed clausal [J].Linguistic Inquiry，1980.11:583-596.

[7]Yoon，J.H.Expletive it in English[C].Ms.In the proceeding of SMOG 2001 Fall Conference on Linguistics，2001.

[8]楊素英.從非賓格動詞現(xiàn)象看語義與句法結(jié)構(gòu)之間的關(guān)系[J].當(dāng)代語言學(xué)，1999，(1):30-43.

基金項目:中南林業(yè)科技大學(xué)人才引進(jìn)科研101-0637項目