漢語第三人稱代詞的篇章功能：漢語不使用零代詞的機制

The Discourse Function of Third Person Anaphor in Chinese: Mechanism for Not Using Zero Anaphor in Chinese

本研究有鑑於傳統研究對於語言類型中「代詞脫落參數」探討的不足之處：先行研究對漢語和英語的探討，多在於指出兩種語言在指稱舊信息時有著截然不同的表現法：漢語多以「零代詞」來指稱前文提過的已知信息，而英語則用「代詞」來表達。然而，漢語固然為代詞脫落語言，以零代詞來指稱前後文的名詞做為語言使用的常態。但遇到特定的情況，漢語亦可捨零代詞，改以代詞來進行指涉功能。但其捨零代詞而就代詞乃基於何種理由，在此方面的研究則相對較少。本文認為漢語捨零代詞而就代詞的整體動因，除了句法和語義的要求外，其篇章功能主要與語言交際時的認知處理有關，符合了「關連理論」的最省力原則：即漢語人稱代詞「他／她／他們」的出現，乃提醒讀者或受話者在篇章中即將進入某種事件的轉變，可視為一事件標記，有別於漢語一般透過主題鏈的零回指形式來表達同一事件的篇章銜接方式。本研究從三個漢語語料庫中，歸納出使用人稱代詞時，六種標記事件轉換的情形。

The present research aims to address the insufficiency of previous research on the language typology of prop-drop parameter, in which considerable efforts have been devoted to different anaphoric mechanisms for given information provided in discourse context: viz. Chinese uses zero anaphor, whereas English uses pronominal anaphor. However, although Chinese is a prop-drop language and does often use zero anaphor for second mention, it also appears to opt for pronominal anaphora in certain discourse contexts and situations. But as to the exact underlying factors which motivate such uses, further research is yet to be seen. The present study, therefore, aims to explore those possible factors which account for the dispensation of zero anaphor in Chinese. It is maintained in this study that the dispensation of zero anaphor and use of pronominal anaphor in Chinese discourse has to do with the processing cost in language communication, and can be interpreted in terms of the Relevance Theory: Using pronominal anaphor, which is against the tendency to use zero anaphor in a prop-drop language such as Chinese, is mainly to signal to the reader/hearer the incoming transition of an event. Thus, pronominal anaphor can be seen as an event marker to introduce different type of new information into the discourse. Based on three Chinese corpus data, the present research identifies six types of situations that mark the transition of a new event.