試論先秦漢語的構句原則

On the Principles of Sentence Formation of Pre-Qin Chinese

先秦漢語有施事句和主題句兩種基本句型。動詞為識別施事句的關鍵；施事句以普通動詞為中心，主語的語義特徵取決於動詞對論元的選擇限制。主題句的主語和謂語之間只有鬆弛的主題－評論關係，主語的語義特徵不受謂語詞性制約。本文首先以「時間結構」定義普通動詞，再就李佐丯（1994）的文言動詞分析來論述普通動詞的次類、施事句主語的類型暨語義特徵、主語和動詞的互動關係。普通動詞在句中完全展現「動態」特徵便構成施事句。反之，謂語不具「動態」特徵的是主題句。名詞、形容詞以及沒有完全展現「動態」特徵的動詞皆可能充任主題句的評論語。先秦繁複的句式都是運用兩種基本的主謂關係再加上連詞銜接而成的；從主謂關係著眼來詮釋先秦的構句原則有助於觀察複句的各種變化。

There are two basic sentence forms in Pre-Qin Chinese, namely the verb-centered sentence and the topic-comment sentence. The verb-centered sentences are featured by a main verb with the pre-verbal participant semantically restricted by it. In the topic-comment sentences, no semantic restriction holds between the topic and the comment. Verbs are key to the formation of sentences, and yet verbs are not overtly marked in Pre-Qin Chinese. That is why the concept of 'temporal structure' is adopted to distinguish verbs from other categories such as nouns and adjectives. A verb indicates either the starting or ending point of an event, whereas a noun or an adjective is not related to this semantic notion. Li (1994) has made a complete study on Classical Chinese verbs, in which verbs are grouped into seven subcategories. Based on Li's study, how the verb in a verb-centered sentence instantiates certain semantic properties of the pre-verbal participant is investigated, and as a consequence, four types of preverbal participants, each corresponding to one or two types of verbs, are recognized. Thus the semantic restrictions between verb and pre-verbal participant are set forth. On the other hand, there is only loose semantic relationship between the topic and the comment. Nouns and adjectives are candidate for functioning as comment in a topic-comment sentence. A verb that does not instantiate its semantic salience at full scale and fails to impose semantic restriction upon the participant before it also serves as comment. In Pre-Qin Chinese, the complicated sentences are built by virtue of these two basic sentence formation principles, with or without additional conjunctions.