現代漢語“連字句”的句法功能探討 ― 以“連”的功能範疇設定爲中心

Abstract

Topic and focus are two very interesting concepts in the study of Chinese grammar. Both have their own syntactic functions and semantic roles. Traditional semantics defines the word ‘lian(連)’ in the ‘lian’ structure as the topic-focus. We make a new analysis of the syntactic function and properties of “Lian”. We believe that among the two grammatical markers of the ‘lian’ structure, the predicate part following the adverb “du/ye” is the focus of the sentence, while “lian” should be regarded as participating in the operator function category of the topic utterance. Therefore, we set “Lian” as a topical operator, which plays a role in constraining arguments, but it cannot exist independently from the “Lian” structure. After determining the syntactic functional category of “Lian”, we use the basic theory of Minimalist Program (MP) to further deduce the deep syntactic position of “Lian”. By introducing the most typical focus mark “shi” and the theoretical basis that the focus word “shi” must be above the TP in the syntactic structure, we derived two ways in which the topical operator “Lian” can appear in the syntactic structure. When the topic operator “Lian” is in the domain of the inflection layer, it can project the only topic on TP, and together with the following “Du/Ye” focus phrase, form a “Lian” sentence structure. When the topic operator “Lian” is on the left periphery above the TP, “Lian” projects the argument it carries into the topic of the CP layer, and its function is no different from that of a general conventional topic. At this time, the focus phrase projected by the focus word “du/ye” becomes the main focus of the entire sentence, so the focus mark “shi” cannot be introduced in the sentence. The simple derivation results are shown in the figure below: CP> related topic > general conventional topic(“Lian” topic) > PP topic > focus mark “Shi(是)” > TP>“Lian” topic > vP