摘要
本文介绍了生成语法文献中几种对存现句 there的代表性分析方法: there作为格传递者; there作为位置填充成分以及there作为LF词缀,指出它们在一定程度上能够解释某些语言现象,但同时各自还存在着种种不足和缺陷。为此本文作者在对有关语料进行分析的基础上,提出了如下观点:在没有方位地点词组出现的存现句中,there作为独立论元出现;在有方位地点词组出现时,there作为该方位地点词组的LF层面上的同标共指成分。
there in the Existential Construction in English has long been a focus of research in the generative literature on account of its peculiar linguistic properties: semantically null while syntactically significant. Numerous views about there have been proposed, each with success to a certain degree. However, there still remains much to be done before a satisfactory explanation can be obtained. The author of this article proposes a new analysis: there functions as an independent argument when no locative appears in the sentence and as an (co-indexed) LF affix when there is a locative. In Section 1, some preliminary knowledge of the Existential Construction is introduced for the purpose of discussion in the following parts. Existential construction in this study is confined to there-be type. In Section 2, three typical analyses of Existentialthere, E-there, are examined: there as a Case bearer and transmitter in Case transfer analysis; there as a mere placeholder in the Direct Case assignment and there as an LF affix within the Minimalist Program. The author goes on, in Section 3, to discuss the potential problems underlying those three analyses proposed, pointing out that we are in for difficulties following any known solution. A reconsideration of there is therefore needed before we can give a more tenable explanation to its occurrence in an existential construction. The author抯 tentative solution is given in Section 4, in which the author argues, based primarily on the data from Chinese, that existential verbs actually are verbs with two internal arguments, as opposed to the traditional analysis. In line with this hypothesis, there may act either as an independent argument when there is no locative in the sentence or as a co-indexed LF affix of the locative in that sentence. The last section summarizes the author’s key-points and raises some residue problems.
出处
《现代外语》
CSSCI
北大核心
2001年第1期23-33,共11页
Modern Foreign Languages
