廣東話中的否定規則是詞滙規則

Negation in Cantonese as a Lexical Rule

否定結構和“A不A”疑問式普遍被看作是句法現像。但是在廣東方言中，這兩種結構卻是在詞滙中形成的，因為否定前綴詞素m“唔”不是在句法中，而是在詞滙中附加子動詞之前的。m的前綴性質可以由下述事實證明：一、m從來不單獨出現，甚至不能單獨用來回答問題。二、某些動詞（諸如yau“有”）的肯定形式和否定式是由不同的詞根派生出來的。三、一些詞項（比如dou“都”）對一般性規則而言是例外現像。四、m的某些用法顯然像英語中的un-一樣，是詞滙前綴。但是，語言學界一直認為m是由句法規則插入句中，用來否定動詞詞組的。本文試圖證明m所否定的不是詞組，而是全部帶有［＋V］成份的詞，包括動詞，形容詞，前置詞，以及一些副詞。本文還證明，“A不A”問句的形成只能來自詞滙重叠規則，根本不可能是句法現像。

This paper argues that two phenomena widely perceived as syntactic, negation and A-not-A question formation, are performed in the lexicon in Cantonese. Specifically, the negative morpheme m 唔 is prefixed in the lexicon, not in the syntax. Evidence that m 唔 is a prefix includes the following. It never appears in isolation, not even as a response to questions. Certain verbs, like yau, 有 'have', show special suppletive forms in the negative. Some lexical items, like the quantifier dou, 都 all, are exceptions to the general rules. Lastly, in certain uses it is clearly a lexical prefix like the English un-. However, it has always been thought to be inserted by syntactic rule, and to negate the phrasal category VP. I argue that it negates not phrasal but lexical categories, including all those with the feature [+V]: verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and some adverbs. I also argue that A-not-A questions must be formed by a lexical reduplication rule, not in the syntax at all. This proposal will offer a way of dealing with the interaction between negation and aspect in Cantonese. I have drawn heavily on Yau (1973), a very comprehensive and insightful work on negation in Cantonese.