“不重要”意義的重要性－－漢語疑問代詞“什麼”的解讀

Insignificance is Significant: Interpretation of the wh-pronoun shenme ‘what’ in Mandarin Chinese

本文研究漢語普通話疑問代詞“什麼＂在簡單否定句中｀不重要＇這個意義是如何產生的。我們認為“什麼＂是一個名詞修飾語的替代詞，它引進所修飾名詞的子類。“什麼＂這個語義特點決定了｀不重要＇這個意義在滿足一定語用條件下能夠出現在含有“什麼＂的簡單否定句中。我們的分析可進一步解釋為什麼｀不重要＇這個意義不能出現在其他一系列語法結構中，包括 (1) 含有負極詞“任何＂的句子；(2) 含有像“誰＂這樣的名詞詞組替代詞的句子；(3) 含有全稱量化副詞“都＂的句子；(4) 含有光杆名詞的句子；(5) 含有未完成體的句子；(6) 含有非局部否定的句子。本文揭示了漢語的多種語法要素參與了｀不重要＇這個意義的允准過程。

This paper offers a semantic analysis of the ‘insignificance’ reading observed in negative sentences with the wh-pronoun shenme ‘what’ in Mandarin Chinese. We propose that shenme is a proform of NP modifiers, partitioning the denotation of the NP it modifies into kinds of entities. Under certain pragmatic conditions, this semantic property of shenme determines that the insignificance reading can be assigned to negative sentences with shenme. The proposed analysis is extended to explain the lack of the insignificance reading in a class of cases, including (i) sentences with the Negative Polarity Item renhe ‘any’; (ii) sentences with ‘head’ wh-pronouns, such as shei ‘who’; (iii) sentences with the adverb of quantification dou ‘all’; (iv) sentences with bare nouns; (v) sentences involving imperfective aspect; and (vi) sentences with non-local negation. The examination of the insignificance reading hence indicates that a variety of aspects of Chinese grammar play a role in licensing this reading.