有关英语识别小句中标记和价值划分的理据研析
- 作者:admin 来源:互联网 日期:2009-6-21 22:41:34
- 们领会说话者或写作者所关心的事情或其‘价值观’”[4]。标记价值结构在某些语域(比如科技、商业、政治问题以及官样文章)起着举足轻重的作用，因此在及物性系统中也最重要。然而区分标记和价值却并非易事，就像韩礼德本人指出的那样，“在整个及物系统中，标记价值结构可能是最难接受的”[2]126。也正因为如此，韩礼德才作出了详细的解释，归纳起来主要有以下几点：
1.如果是主动语态，则小句主语就是标记；反之，如果是被动语态，则主语就是价值。比如：
(1)The daughter resembles the mother. [Tk^Vl]
(2)The mother is resembled by the daughter. [Vl^Tk]
2.在主位等式(thematic equative)中，名词短语总是价值。比如：
(3)What it tells you is the strength of the signal. [Vl^Tk]
(4)This is what we’re going to do. [Tk^Vl]
3.具体的、看得见的为标记，抽象的、看不见的为价值。换句话说，凡“符号、名称、形式、执行者、所有者”都是标记；凡“意义、指称、功能、职能、身份”都是价值。比如：
(5)Fred is the tall one. [Vl^Tk]
(6)Fred is the treasurer. [Tk^Vl]
不过当动词是be时，却不容易判断识别小句呈现的究竟是主动语态还是被动语态，比如：
(7)This offer is your best chance t o win a prize. [Tk^Vl]
(8)One criterion is that of genetic diversity. [Vl^Tk]
鉴于此，韩礼德提出用其他动词如represent、play等来替换be，倘若小句呈现主动语态，则主语为标记，否则为价值。比如，上述两个例句可以分别替换为：
(9)This offer represents your best chance to win a prize.
(10)One criterion is represented by genetic diversity.
在一定语境下，标记和价值都是很明确的，即使发生误解，最后也能得到纠正。请看韩礼德在《功能语法入门》中所举的例子[2]127：
(11) A. So the best students are the greatest worriers，is that it?
B. Oh，I don’t think there’s any virtue in worrying，is there?
A. No，I didn’t mean is it because they worry that they get to be the best. I meant is it because they’re the best students that they worry.
在这个例子中，A本意是说“好学生因为‘好’，所以才焦虑”，因此the best students是标记，the greatest worriers是价值；换句话说，这句话可以用“The best students represent the great worriers.”来表示。B把这句话理解成“因为焦虑，所以才好”，这样the best students就成了价值，而the greatest worriers则成了标记；换句话说，这句话可以用“The best students are represented by the great worriers.”来表示。那么B为什么会误解，或者说“The best students are the greatest worriers.”为什么会有歧义呢?我们认为这是由于good和great这类词造成的。这类词比较抽象，一般用于价值判断，往往和后接的名词一起构成标记价值结构中的价值。当使用者把这类词当成和red、green一样，进行客观描述而不是进行判断时，就会出现在标记中。然而究竟何时是判断，何时是客观描述，脱离了语境往往很难判定。韩礼德在《功能语法入门》中所举的两个例子[2]128：
(12)My brother is the tallest one in the family. [Tk^Vl]
(13)My brother is the tallest one in the picture. [Vl^Tk]
只会让读者更加困惑：为什么仅仅一字之差，价值就变成了标记了呢?韩礼德对例(12)的解释是：只有一个成员的类别成为了价值，而这个成员被看作是标记。这样的解释用他自己的话来说，是“难以接受的(difficult to come to terms with)”[2]127。其实，我们换种思考方式，就不难理解了。“我”在使用这两个句子时，my brother都是不在场的，否则我只要说“This is my brother.”或“That is my brother.”就行了。在使用例(13)时，肯定有一张照片在现场，这时候my brother是“看得见的”，所以the tallest one in the picture是标记就没有任何疑问。“我”在使用例(12)时，“我的家人”是不在场的，是看不见的，tallest指向的是性质，而非特征，因此the tallest one in the family是价值而非标记。实际上，倘若我们把例(12)、(13)看作是答案，构建出相对应的问题，这一切就更清楚了。
(12a)Who is the tallest one in your family? My brother is the tallest one in the family.
(13b)Which is your brother? My brother is the tallest one in the picture.
我们再用替代法来验证一下，那么例(12)和(13)就可以分别表述为“My brother represents the tallest one in the family.”和“My brother is represented by the tallest one in the picture.”这样，通过综合考虑，就不难判定哪一个实体是标记，哪一个是价值。
三、韩礼德等有关标记价值论述之不足
功能语言学派对标记和价值概念虽然越来越重视，但是从目前的研究成果来看，对标记价值结构的论述仍然存在不足，其主要表现在与功能语法的另一对概念归一性情态的脱节。目前所见到的有关标记价值结构的论述主要是肯定的(注：韩礼德在1994年版的《功能语法入门》第122页和127页提供了两个和情态有关的例句：The one in the back row must be you及A solid phase could be represented by condensates of the nuclear fluid，但是没有展开。)，这和语言的实际使用情况不相符。我们从归一性和情态这对概念中不难发现，语言使用是一个连续体，一端是肯定，另一端是否定，中间部分被情态占据。识别小句并不例外，也必须遵守这一规律。目前对标记价值结构的论述偏向于肯定一端，所以是不全面而有所偏颇的。从1994年版的《功能语法入门》第123页所列出的在识别小句中经常出现的动词中，随机挑选出consist，imply，constitute和mean几个词，利用Google搜索引擎，进行了搜索，得到的结果验证了上述观点。
(一)归一性与标记价值结构
由于现有文献中有关标记价值结构的论述皆涉及肯定句，所以我们此处仅列出否定句。
(14)It does not constitute either a sect or a school of thought，but is rather a spiritual or transcendental practice which persists despite criticism from orthodox theologians. [Tk^Vl]
(15)Moreover，mainstreaming：‘does not mean simply making Community programmes or resources more accessible to women，but rather the simultaneous mobilisation of legal instruments，financial resources and the Community’s analytical and organisational capacities in order to introduce in all areas the desire to build balanced relationships between women and men.’ [Tk^Vl]
(16)Dignity does not consist in possessing honors，but in deserving them. [Tk^Vl]
(17)Life does not consist mainly，or even largely，of facts and happenings. [Tk^Vl]
(二)情态与标记价值结构
(18)The brighter areas seem to consist of similar but even more weathered and oxidized material that apparently contains more fine，dust size particles than do the dark regions.[Tk^Vl]
(19)These remnant polar caps are believed to consist mostly of frozen water. [Tk^Vl]
(20)The core is believed to consist of mostly metallic iron and nickel. [Tk^Vl]
(21)New bar codes might mean good news，or inconvenience. [Tk^Vl]
(22)The discovery could imply that evolution of brain structures linked to speech began before the ancestors of humans and apes parted ways. [Tk^Vl]
(三)归一性情态与标记价值结构
(23)These postings may not consist of or contain software viruses，political campaigning，commercial solicitation or any form of “spam.” [Tk^Vl]
(24)Failure to meet these reque sts will not constitute cause for adjustment，refund or rerun. [Tk^Vl]
值得注意的是，当情态与标记价值结构结合时，情态动词表现出的语态不作为判断标记和价值的标准。这里所说
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