漢語帶「就算」讓步條件句之語意與語用分析

The Semantics and Pragmatics of Mandarin Concessive Conditionals with Jiusuan

本文從語意與語用的角度切入，討論漢語中帶「就算」的表讓步條件句（如：「就算天氣不好，活動也／還是會照常舉行」）。在此一句型中，附加性助詞(additive particle)「也」或「還是」必須出現。過去認為，這兩者在此一句型中可以自由互換。然而在此一研究中，我們透過更精準的語境控制發現，這兩者在此一句型中的出現，並非如一般認為地可以任意互換，而是被語境中所提供的選項(alternative)數量所制約。本文除了對帶「就算」讓步條件句的語意構成進行分析之外，也透過語用的角度解析「也」／「還是」在此一句型中的出現與這兩者和語境的互動，以Heim (1991)所提出的「前設最大化」(Maximize Presupposition!)來解釋所觀察到的相關限制。

In this paper we discuss the semantics and pragmatics of the Mandarin concessive conditional with jiusuan, which is usually taken to be the counterpart of English even-if-conditionals (e.g., Even if John drank one ounce of whisky, he would be fired). One remarkable characteristic of this Mandarin jiusuan-conditional is the obligatory presence of the additive particle, be it ye‘also’or haishi‘still’. At first glance, it seems that these two additive particles alternate freely in this construction. We however observe that (i) these two particles are not in free alternation, and (ii) the choice between these two particles depends on the number of the alternatives in the alternative set. In addition to a compositional semantics of this construction, we further provide an account for the alternation between ye and haishi in this construction, which is built on the principle Maximize Presupposition! (Heim 1991; Percus 2006; Chemla 2008; Singh 2011, and others).