A Comparative Study of the Implicit Connectives between English and Chinese

Yung-Aun Li

《復興崗學報》 63期 (1998/06) Pp. 1-29

並列摘要

In this paper, the ways of representing implicit connectives in English and Chinese will be compared. First, we will see what the basic structural difference between the clause complexes of English and Chinese is. This basic difference may lead us to understand why English and Chinese present the implicit connectives differently. Then we will discuss how English implicit connectives are represented in both finite and non-finite verb clauses. We will see, for example, that in finite sentences, the main way of suggesting the presence of English implicit connectives is through the use of punctuation marks. The ways of recovering the implicit connectives will also be discussed. From this discussion of the English connectives, we will turn to the features of the Chinese c1ause complex and describe Chinese implicit connectives. The first thing we will notice is that unlike the structure of an English sentence, which has both Subject and Predicate, the Chinese sentence features a structure containing Topic and Comment. (Chao, 1968:69). The topic can be followed by c1auses in couples without connectives. Finally, the ways of representing implicit connectives in English and Chinese will be compared and the similarities and differences between the two languages in this regard will be noted.

並列關鍵字

implicit connective ； subject ； predicate ； topic ； comment