On Proportional Correlative Constructions in Chinese and Mongolian

漢語與蒙古語的比例關聯句式

This paper aims to investigate the semantics and syntax of Mandarin‘yuè...yuè...’construction and Mongolian‘xedii...tödii...’construction. It is argued that the first yuèand xedii always occur in a topic while the second yuèand tödii appear in the comment part of a sentence. Semantically, both the‘yuè...yuè...’and the‘xedii...tödii...’constructions, the degree/quantity of y changes accordingly. The‘xedii...tödii...’construction, however, might also has a constant reading, expressing an equivalence between two fixed values on two scales. It is argued that the constant relation is a special case of the proportional correlative relation. McCawley (1988) found that the proportional constructions exhibit some syntactic properties of comparative constructions and conditional constructions. We argue that it is not a coincidence but a natural consequence. Since the degree/quantity of y depends on that of x, the construction is basically conditional. Besides, to describe the change of the degree/quantity, one must compare the degree/quantity with a standard, usually the degree/quantity at a certain point. Thus, it involves‘comparision’inherently.

本文探討漢語“越…越…”句與蒙古語“xedii...tödii...” 句的語意與語法。兩種句式的第一個關聯詞（即第一個“越”與“xedii”）都出現在句子的主題裡，而第二個關聯詞（第二個“越”與“tödii”）則都出現在評論的部份。語意上這兩種句式都表示兩個變數之間的比例關聯； 但是‘xedii...tödii...’ 句式還能表示兩個量的相等關係。我們主張，相等關係是比例關聯關係的一個特例。McCawley （1988） 發現比例關聯句式的語意與語法跟條件句、比較句常有平行的現象。我們認為，這是由於比例關聯句式與「條件」、「比較」等概念有密切的關係。因為這種句式表示兩個變數「量」的比例關聯，一個變數的量隨著另一個變數的量而增減，語意上本來就跟「條件」有關。因為比例關聯句式牽涉到量的變化，有變化就有增有減，而所謂「增」或「減」其實就是與一個相對的「標準」比較的結果，自然與「比較」也有關係。因此，「越字句」跟「條件句」、「比較句」有類似的語法特性可以由其語意特性預測得知。