程度結構的焦點成分－以「太」字結構為例

The Focus Component in Degree Constructions: Some Remarks on the Tai Construction

舒志翔(Chih-hsiang SHU)

《臺灣語文研究》 14卷2期 (2019/10) Pp. 177-216

https://doi.org/10.6710/JTLL.201910_14(2).0002

摘要

本文從中文「太」字結構的角度來探討程度結構中的兩個問題。一是文獻中所討論的帶範域程度詞常被分析為量化詞，但是典型量化詞卻無法和程度論元組合。二是文獻中對於程度詞是否有帶範域以及是否有移位仍有爭論。本文採用Rooth（1985）等現代焦點理論的看法，主張「太」字結構為焦點結構之一員，且此結構為等級焦點結構。同時，基於中文的語料，本文也主張「太」字結構中存在著焦點移位。本文的證據來源包括「太」與焦點敏感詞「連」在焦點語意上的種種共通性、「太」與「了」的共現現象的句法特性以及相關的句法區域性效應等。

關鍵字

程度結構 ； 等級焦點 ； 「太」與「了」的共現 ； 句内成分與句子邊緣的依存性 ； 隱性焦點

並列摘要

This article investigates two issues in the study of degree constructions, with a special focus on the tai construction in Mandarin Chinese. One issue is the fact that although previous studies tend to regard putative scope-bearing degree expressions as quantifiers, typical quantifiers cannot merge with degree arguments. The other is the controversy about whether degree expressions are scope-bearing at all. The article adopts Rooth (1985) and subsequent studies' definition of focus and argues that the tai construction is a focus construction, and it is a scalar focus construction. Furthermore, based on Mandarin data, it also argues that the construction involves focus movement. The evidence comes from the parallelisms between the tai construction and the lian construction in terms of their focus semantic properties, the co-occurrence of tai and sentence-final-le and their syntactic properties, and relevant syntactic locality effects.

並列關鍵字

degree constructions ； scalar focus ； tai...le co-occurrence ； sentence-internal and sentence-peripheral dependency ； silent focus

參考文獻

Higginbotham, James and Robert May. 1981. Questions, quantifiers and crossing. The Linguistic Review 1: 41-79.

Hiraiwa, Ken. 2000. Multiple agree and the defective intervention constraint in Japanese. Unpublished manuscript. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hiraiwa, Ken. 2005. Dimensions of Symmetry in Syntax: Agreement and Clausal Architecture. Cambrdige: Massachusetts Institute of Technology dissertation.

Horvath, Julia. 2007. Separating "focus movement" from focus. In Simin Karimi, Vida Samiian, and Wendy K. Wilkins (eds.), Phrasal and Clausal Architecture: Syntactic Derivation and Interpretation. In Honor of Joseph E. Emonds, 108-145. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Huang, C.-T. James, Y.-H. Audrey Li, and Yafei Li. 2009. The Syntax of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.