完成式的研究:漢語句末『了』的語意解釋

Abstract

中文摘要 完成式的研究：漢語句末『了』的語意解釋及其相互關連

本篇論文主要探討漢語句末「了」的時間解釋。漢語句末「了」 (以下簡稱為「了2」)與其他的動貌標記在文獻上被討論眾多，但語言學家對「了2」一直還沒有清楚的定論以及給予其明確的語意角色。本篇文章論證「了2」為完成式的標記，提供從過去開始到參照時間點的完成式時段(perfect time span)，句法的上高於其他的動貌標記而居於完成式詞組的主要語(the head of Perfect Phrase)。加上「了2」完成式標記，根據下面加接的視點體(viewpoint aspect)和情狀(situation types)不同而發展出不同類型的完成式。此篇論文提出：“從…起，就…了”為中文的持續貌完成式(universal perfect)，“過…了”為中文的經驗貌完成式(experiential perfect)，“了…了”為特定事件完成式，而含有自然終結點的動詞和「了2」單用則會形成結果貌完成式(resultative perfect)。我們利用英文中對不同類型完成式的語意測試一一檢驗中文的情形。 而英文中現在完成式不能接受定指時間副詞(positional time adverbial)修飾其所包蘊的過去事件，此為著名的完成式迷思現象。(McCoard 1978, Klein 1992等)。而中文並非所有類型的完成式都呈現完成式迷思現象。本文利用Pancheva and von Stechow(2003)對完成式的定義來解釋中文的情形。簡言之，經驗貌完成式和特定事件完成式內的完成式時段是先於參照時間或是部分重疊參照時間，但結果貌完成式卻必須要包含參照時間點，這造成兩種類型的完成式對過去時間副詞的修飾情形不一。 本文主張中文的「了2」是完成式標記，而含「了2」的句子的不同解釋起源於不同的動貌標記、情狀類型、或是動詞組語意的差異，這些因素導引出不同類型的完成式。而「了2」為完成式標記的分析可說明前人對「了2」不同的描述以及說明句法上高於其他動貌的原因。本文利用許多語法測試、邏輯式的說明、和句法結構以呈現「了2」句子的時間解釋和定位其在句法語意上的角色。

Abstract

This thesis studies sentential final “Le” in Chinese. Sentential particle “Le” (abbreviated as Le2) and other aspect markers draw much attention in Chinese linguistics. In recent years, linguists have consistent analysis on the interpretations of aspect markers, like “guo” and verbal “Le”(Le1). However, we only knew that Le2 involves “change of states”, may provide speech time as a reference time, and has many pragmatic functions. In this paper, based on its core semantic content- Current relevance and anteriority, we aim to define Le2 as a perfect marker, and it also introduces a perfect time span(PTS). According to Iatridou et.al (2001), PTS is a time interval which starts in past and ends in reference time. Different types of Perfect are derived from the interaction of PTS and underlying eventualities. In Chinese, we argued that Le2 plays the same role. Therefore, in Chinese, “guo…Le2” is experiential perfect, “cuo...qi, jiu…le” is universal perfect, and the combination of Le2 and the predicates which imply the result state derives resultative perfect. This analysis accounts for the various interpretations of the sentences with Le2. Besides, we discuss the present perfect puzzle phenomena in Chinese. We observe that it’s the case that every types of present perfect avoids the modification of past time adverbial. Adopting the logical interpretation of perfect in Pancheva and von Stechow(2003), if the speech time is the reference time, PTS of “guo..Le” and “Le1…Le2” can precede or partially overlap the reference time; on the other hand, PTS of “RVC…le” and “zai…le” needs to overlap reference time. Consequently, present perfect puzzle only occurs on the latter type of perfect. In fact, the phenomenon supports the claim that Le2 is perfect marker in Chinese ; besides, the previous analysis can’t solve this problem. This thesis concludes that Le2 has a uniform temporal interpretation- Perfect.