摘要
本文介绍Chomsky(1999)新作《语段推导》的主要内容。此新作旨在改进和进一步发展最简方案,对最简方案新框架内的句法推导进行了较深入探讨。Chomsky认为,表达式的推导是以语段为单位进行的,而每一个语段则是由置于大脑活动记忆区的词汇次矩阵所决定的;并区分强语段与弱语段、核心功能语类φ特征的完整与非完整在句法推导中的不同作用。把过去认为是显性句法或隐性句法中的操作归结于语音部分。笔者认为,《语段推导》是对原则参数理论的又一贡献,为更好地解决描写充分性和解释充分性之间的张力问题提供了新的途径。
The paper gives a short introduction to and a brief comment on Chomsky's latest work Derivation by Phase (Chomsky 1999). This work continues the discussion made in Minimalist Inquiries: The Framework (Chomsky 1998), in which Chomsky proposes that the core functional categories be reduced to C, T and v, and that the operations that enter into the computational system be Merge, Agree and Move. From the point of view of good design conditions (economy), he further points out that Merge or Agree (or their combination) should preempt Move. The functional category Agr and the operation Attract are dispensed with.
According to Chomsky (1999), the shared goal of minimalist program is to answer clearly the fundamental question of the study of language: To what extent is the human faculty of language an optimal solution to minimal design, conditions that must be satisfied for language to be usable at all? For each language L, the expressions generated by L must be 'legible' to systems that access these objects at the interface between the faculty of language and external systems. The strongest minimalist thesis would hold that language is an optimal solution to such conditions.
The term phase is first put forward by Chomsky (1998) and he further discusses this topic in his latest work. According to Chomsky, derivations proceed phase by phase, where each phase is determined by a subarray of a lexical array, placed in active memory. Derivation is assumed to be strictly cyclic, but with the phase level of the cycle playing a special role. The head of a phase is 'inert' after the phase is completed, triggering no further operation. The evidence shows that the phases are 'prepositional': verbal phrases with full argument structure and CP with force indicators, but not TP alone or 'weak' verbal configurations lacking external arguments (passive, unaccusative). Therefore, phases are CP and v*P, and a subarray contains exactly one C and v*. CP and v*p are strong phases, which are potential targets for movement; C and v* may have an EPP feature, which provides a position for X-movement. Spell-out is cyclic at the phase level. In contrast to EST-based systems, there is no overt-covert distinction with two independent cycles; rather, a single narrow-syntactic cycle. Interpretation/evaluation for a phase is at the next relevant phase.
In Derivation by Phase, Chomsky argues that thematiztion, extraction, object shift and head-raising may take place in the phonological component.
The author holds that the arguments proposed in Derivation by Phase can better explain the structural differences among languages and that it contributes to the principles-and-parameters theory. It can better solve the problem of the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy.
出处
《现代外语》
CSSCI
北大核心
2000年第3期317-322,共6页
Modern Foreign Languages
