論旨階層與衍生經濟性

Thematic Hierarchy and Derivational Economy

論旨階層在語法理論中的地位眾說紛紜，甚至連最基本的是否應該存在都有爭議。本文主張以結構層次來反映論旨階層可以有助於解釋有關漢語賓語省略的相關現象。漢語基本上對動詞選擇何種論元、多少論元似乎彈性很大，主賓語好像也常能互換。然而，在這些看似極大的彈性之下，事實上仍有一些限制。譬如，只有在句子的論元結構遵守論旨階層的情況下，賓語才能省略；如果論元是在句法運作中加入的，那麼賓語就不能省略。相對地，主語省略就不受此限。本文指出，這些限制可以從論旨結構層次及衍生經濟性得到合理的解釋。

What thematic hierarchy is has been controversial, and whether it should exist as a theoretical construct has been questioned. This work shows that if thematic hierarchy is represented structurally as layers of projections, it helps to account for some newly observed constraints on object deletion in Chinese. Chinese exhibits much flexibility in the number and type of arguments that can occur with verbs, and subjects and objects seem to be interchangeable in many cases. However, it is shown that constraints can be found amid the great flexibility in argument structure-- object deletion is not possible in the cases not following thematic hierarchy, although subject deletion is still possible. Moreover, object deletion is unacceptable in the cases where arguments are added syntactically. Again, subjects can be deleted in such constructions. These generalizations will be captured by the aforementioned layers of projections reflecting thematic hierarchy and a notion of derivational economy-- simpler structures are favored when choices are available.