Brief Analysis of Ergative Constructions in Mandarin Chinese ——From the Perspective of Functional Grammar

刘晓杨

【摘要】在傳统及物性分析的基础上，韩礼得提出了作格分析模式。不同于及物性分析关注过程是否延及其他实体，作格分析从一个新的角度去解释小句，即过程是否由外部原因引起。通过对比分析及物性和作格性，本文总结了作格理论中的主要概念，以及两者间的差异。尽管汉语不是典型的作格语言，但现代汉语中存在大量的作格结构,然而传统的及物性分析不能对这些特殊结构做出恰当的解释。因此，在相关作格理论的基础上，本文从功能语法的角度重点分析了现代汉语中的作格结构。

【关键词】作格；及物性；作格分析；作格结构；现代汉语

【Abstract】Basing on the traditional interpreting mode—transitive analysis, Halliday put forward the ergative analysis. Different from transitive analysis which focuses on the extension, ergative analysis interprets the meaning of clause from a new perspective: whether theres an outer causation in the process . Through contrast analysis between transitivity and ergativity, this paper provides main concepts of ergativity theories and differences between them. Though Chinese is not considered as a typical “ergative language”, there are lots of ergative constructions in mandarin Chinese which cannot be explained properly by transitive analysis mode. Therefore, basing on certain ergativity theories, this paper mainly focus on analyzing those ergative constructions in mandarin Chinese from the perspective of functional grammar.

【Key words】ergativity; transitivity; ergative analysis; ergative constructions; mandarin Chinese

Chapter 1 Introduction

According to functional linguist Halliday, there are two modes of interpreting peoples experiential world : transitive and ergative mode. Different from transitive analysis, ergative analysis doesnt focus on whether the process extends to some other entity; however, it tries to probe the causation of a process and make clear thats an inner causation or an outer one. Halliday takes the two modes as two totally different ones, but they could complement each other. (Halliday, 2004:282). And Wang huiping thinks that using the two modes together could help us make a more effective understanding of the texture(王惠萍,2006).From the ergative point of view, every clause is consisted of the Medium, the Process, and the optional Agent, which constructs the nucleus of a clause. It pays attention to how the act in a clause happens, being caused by inner reasons or outer force.

Chapter 2 Main Concepts of Ergativity in Functional Grammar

1. Ergative Verbs

In linguistics, ergative verbs are also called non-accusative verbs, which can be either transitive or intransitive, and whose subject when intransitive corresponds to the direct object when transitive.By contrast, with an ergative verb the role of the subject changes, for example:

(1) a.George shattered the mirror .(S + V + O)

b.The mirror shattered .(S + V)

c. 喬治打碎了镜子。(S + V + O)

d. 镜子打碎了。(S + V)

2. Medium And Agent

The subject of the above sentence (a) is “George”, while “the mirror” is the subject of sentence (b). So “the mirror” is the object in sentence (a) but is the subject in sentence (b). However, the two sentences almost express the same meaning and use the same verb “shattered”. The difference between the two sentences is not that whether theres an outer participant “George”, but the function of that participant. It is clear that, “George” in sentence (a) is an outer participant and it causes the process.

From the analysis of example sentences above, we could suppose that, in ergative system, there is at least one main participant in a process, through which the process is actualized, and without which there would be no process at all. Halliday calls that element the Medium. The Process and the Medium together form the nucleus of a clause; and the nucleus then determines the range of options that are available to the rest of the clause. Except the medium, there may exist another participant which is described as an outer element, that is the Agent. If the process is a spontaneous one, there will not exist an agent; however, if the process is caused by an outer entity, there must exist an agent.

3. Comparison With the Transitive System

2.3.1 The Transitive Analysis

Transitivity is a semantic system, happenings of people in the real world could be divided into several processes, in which there are relevant “participants” and “circumstances”.

The process of doing or happening is a material process, in which the process is expressed by dynamic verbs, nouns or pronouns are used to express the actor (logical subject) and the goal (logical direct object)；The process of feeling, thinking and perceiving is a kind of mental process. There are two main participants in a mental process: one is the Senser (conscious being that is feeling, thinking or perceiving), the other is the Phenomenon (which is sensed). The analysis of transitive clauses mainly focus on types of the process as well as participants and circumstances involved in the process. For example:

(2) a.He broke the vase. (他打碎了花瓶。)

b.The vase broke. (这花瓶碎了。)

2.3.2 The Ergative analysis

As a name of a kind of grammatical case, ergativity means the form of the “agent” or the outer causation in a clause. Lets still analyze the example clauses above. In the first clause, the act is “broke”, what is broken is “the vase”, and the outer causation of the act is the agent “he”. Meanwhile, “the vase” is also the subject of the clause (b), which is called an ergative subject. This kind of linguistic phenomenon, in which the same element could be placed in the subjective position as well as the objective position, is called “ergative phenomenon”.

Contrast with the transitive analysis, what the ergative analysis investigates is that the causation of the act is an inner one or an outer one. ( 胡壮麟等 2005: 93; 席建国、陈建平、喻旭燕2010: 20-23) In the example above, the act “broke” in example (a) has an obvious outer causation, that is the agent “he”; however, its hard to find the causation in example (b), we do not know the act “broke” is caused by either human factors or other factors. According to ergative analysis, “the vase” in the above two examples has the same function, that is its the medium through which the act “broke” is actualized.

Chapter 3 Ergative Constructions in Mandarin Chinese

1. Ergative Constructions

Briefly speaking, “ergativity” means a kind linguistic phenomenon that the transitive clauses object and the corresponding intransitive clauses subject have the same case. Studies on the ergativity in the linguistic field mainly focus on ergative languages as well as ergative phenomena in non-ergative languages. Though Chinese doesnt belong to those ergative languages, there exist ergative constructions in it. For example,

(3) a.老张盖了房子(S+V+O)——a房子盖了(S+V)

b.妈妈养大了孩子(S+V+O)——b孩子养大了(S+V)

c.李明完成了作业(S+V+O)——c 作业完成了(S+V)

Example sentences (a)—(c) share the similarity that the subject of each sentence is the patient or object. However, sentences a-c neither have the marker of passive voice nor have corresponding passive constructions. Therefore, sentences like a, b and c are called ergative constructions.

2. Functional Analysis

Halliday (1994/2000) takes the ergative analysis as the complement of transitive analysis. Transitive analysis strictly distinguish the “actor” from the “goal”, focuses on that whether the process extends to other certain entity except the actor itself. While the ergative analysis emphasizes the spontaneity or causation, that is the process is caused by the participant or other certain entity. For example,

(4) transitive clause: a. 他在阅读。

b. 他在阅读报纸。

(5) ergative clause: a. 眼睛闭上了。

b. 她闭上了眼睛。

The two transitive clauses in example (7) both have the meaning that “他阅读”，the process of clause (b) extends to “报纸”, but the process of clause (a) doesnt. The two ergative clauses in example (8)both involve the meaning that “眼睛闭上”，in clause (a) “眼睛” close spontaneously while the process in clause (b) has an outer causation.

Medium is the indispensable element of each ergative constructions, without which the process cannot exist. In addition, there may exist another optional participant which is regarded as the outer causation, that is the agent. If the process happens spontaneously, there is no independent agent. In contrast, if the process is caused by other certain entity, there will exist an agent. Therefor, clauses like “花瓶打碎”，“孩子養大”and “眼睛闭上”all have the same structure : Medium+Process.

Chapter4 Conclusion

According to the analysis above we could conclude that, traditional textual analysis is mainly transitive analysis; however, transitive analysis sometimes cannot completely interpret certain deep meanings. As an useful complement to transitive analysis, ergative analysis have advantages of analyzing deep meanings of certain constructions. Though the two modes complement each other, ergative analysis are more appropriate for some constructions in mandarin Chinese, and we could directly call them ergative constructions. The application of ergative analysis in mandarin Chinese could more properly and completely show the ideational function of the Chinese language.

References：

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