英语篇章的话题系统*

吴碧宇 王建国

(华东理工大学, 上海 200237)

英语篇章的话题系统*

吴碧宇 王建国

(华东理工大学, 上海 200237)

本文首先明确话题和话题链的定义，从纵向和横向对话题句或链类型进行分类，描写英语话题的横向发展和纵向发展。根据话题的语义延续性以及话题句或链之间的层次，从三个方面区分话题链，最后把所有各个层次上的话题链类型归结于句子链、超句话题链和篇章话题链等类型，从而构建出整个英语篇章的话题系统。

英语话题；话题链类型；英语篇章的话题系统

This paper begins with defining the term “topic” and “topic chain”, and then classifies the varying types of topic chains from the horizontal and vertical perspectives, which helps to describe the development of the topics. From the point of view of semantic continuity and ranking of topics, topic chains are classified hierarchically from three perspectives. A topic system of English texts should be formulated based on (1) sentence topic chains, (2)super-sentence topic chains, and (3)text topic chains.

1 引言

话题是话语或篇章概念，一定有所指。话题往往位于话语的起始之处，有自己的标记，但常常被省略。话题的基本话语功能就是“相关性”(aboutness)，即体现为可以连接小句或更大的结构单位。(屈承熹 1999)这表现在话题为述说(comment)划定时间、空间或个体方面的背景与范围，从而为述说提供起点。话题可能实现的语言形式主要有：小句、名词短语、谓词短语、形容词短语、频度副词短语、介宾结构、代名词、零形式，表示某个具体或抽象的实体。(王建国 2009)

话题链的概念由Dixon(1972)提出，由曹逢甫(1977)引入汉语研究，曹逢甫(1979/1995, 1990/2005)、李樱(1985)、石定栩(1992, 2000)、屈承熹(1998)、李文丹(2005)、彭宣维(2005)等学者展开了深入的研究。无论组织篇章，还是理解篇章，话题链都起着重要的作用。(李虹 1995)然而，以往对话题链篇章功能的研究多在句子层面上(曹逢甫 1979/1995, 石定栩 1992)，因而未能更好地讨论话题链构建篇章的作用。彭宣维是把话题链概念引入到英语篇章研究中的学者之一，主要研究英语话题链与篇章构成之间的关系，在一定程度上解决了把句子话题和篇章话题割裂开来的问题，推动了话题链的研究。本文将在前人研究的基础上，进一步探讨这一问题。

我们认为，话题链是共享话题的系列小句，只要话题的语义得到延续，话题链就不会断裂。篇章中话题的语义不仅可以全部延续，即横向发展，还可以部分延续，即纵向发展。

2 话题的横向发展与层次性和话题链的横向层次性

一个话题在其全部语义得到延续的过程中，即横向发展中，可能出现不同的变体，如图1所示。(彭宣维 2005)例如：

① The UN is divided into six major groups. Each groupihas an important job to do within the UN system. Theyiare the General Assembly, Security Council, Secretariat, Economic and Social Council, International Court of Justice, and Trusteeship Council. (彭宣维 2005)(Each group是they的个体指称变体)

② Mexicoifinanced the remaining balance on the loan by issuing bonds with high interest rates. The governmentistated that the shift from the United States loan to state bonds would save the Mexican government 100 million in repayment fees per year.(同上)(The government是Mexico的借代指称变体)

③ An elephant，waving her painted forehead at the morn... The elephantihad knelt，grey and isolated, like another hill... Then the beastirose in two shattering movements, and poised them ten feet above the plain.(同上)(the beast是the elephant的下义指称变体)

④ Maryifound herself a seat on a rock that had been rolled against the trunk of an old apple tree... The doctor’s daughterihad been to the decayed old orchard many times before.(同上) (The doctor’s daughter是Mary的角色指称变体)

图1话题横向发展中可能出现的形式示意图

那么，话题在横向发展中是如何对篇章构建起作用的呢？王建国认为，篇章的信息处理单位，即语义单位，可分为小句、句子、超句和篇章。(王建国 2009)其中小句为最基本的篇章信息处理单位，句子是由一个主题(theme)控制的、由一个或多个小句构成的语义单位，超句是由一个主题控制的、由多个句子构成的语义单位，篇章则是最大的语义单位。三者在一定的情况下可以重合。由此，若话题的语义在后续话语中得到全部延续，根据其延续的结构单位大小，可以划分出层次不一的话题链类型，如句子话题链⑤、超句话题链⑥和篇章话题链，它们体现话题链在横向上的层次性。篇章话题链往往是由篇章标题为话题引导的话题链，参见本文第5小节中的样本分析。

⑤ Because of her medical and her legal billsi, she is now penniless and deeply in debt. (Collins2003)

⑥ [Sheistarted in the bathroom. Sheiput the shaving brush, the disposable razor, the toothbrush and the dental floss in a large black bin bag.] (Fireworks)

横向维度上，我们还可以从一级话题和非一级话题的角度识别出具有横向层次上的话题链，即一级话题和非一级话题的话题链。根据话题在篇章中的地位，曹逢甫(1990/2005：i)把话题分为一级话题(primary topic)、二级话题(secondary topic)和三级话题(tertiary topic)等，话题辖域(topic scope)逐次变小。辖域更小的话题所引导的话题链包括在辖域更大的话题所引导的话题链内。这样，例⑦中“there”为一级话题，“she”为二级话题，它们分别构成一级和二级话题链。

⑦ Therei [sheijfound the toolbox and assorted DIY equipment, and øij trashed the lot]. (Fireworks)

3 话题的纵向发展与层次性和话题链的纵向层次性

当话题的部分语义得到延续时可引出语义上具有上下位关系的话题，如图2所示，这些话题又引出其他话题结构，这些话题结构与由上位或下位话题引导的话题结构构成纵向意义上的不同层次的话题句或话题链。

图2话题纵向发展示意图

⑧ Purposes and principlesi. The charter lists four purposes and seven principles of the United Nations. The first purposeijis to... The second purposeikis to...The thirdilis to... The fourth purposeimis to...; The first principle of the United Nationsiis that. Second, all members are expected to... Third, they agree to... Fourth, they agree not to... Fifth, members agree to... Sixth, the UN agrees to... And seventh, the UN accepts the principle of...(彭宣维 2005)(集体或个体话题链)

⑨ Iiscream my pain out from my gut as the last shrouds of sunlight fall from the earth and darkness wraps me in her embrace. My voiceijechoes off the canyon walls, coming back to me. Iiraise my arms, spread wide, ... (HopeAndComfort) (整体或部分话题链)

⑩ Linguisticsistudies the full range of aspects of human language. It investigates the phonetics, grammar and semantics of individual languages, ...Corpus linguisticsijlooks at language from a social perspective; Corpus linguistics deals with exchanging and sharing content.(上位或下位话题链)

4 话题链与插入成分

在一定的语境中，一些句法结构，包括话题链，在构建篇章时的地位较低，可视为具有更高地位的话题链中的插入成分。

屈承熹(1998)、李文丹(2005)和王建国(2009)都对汉语话题链中的插入成分作了讨论。王建国指出，汉语话题链中的中间插入成分一般都是话题句或话题链。

英语中也有这种情况。彭宣维提出的断续型(intermittent)话题链就是注意到话题链中可以插入非一级话题的小句。(彭宣维 2005)例如：

王建国指出，话题结构插入成分有两种可能：一种是由与话题链的主话题具有纵向层次上的上下位、集体与个体、整体与部分、领属与所属等关系的次话题引导的一个话题句或话题链，如例⑨；另一种是由与话题链的主话题具有横向层次上的主次关系的次话题所引导的一个话题句或话题链，如例、。

5 英语篇章的话题系统

我们发现，纵向层次上的话题结构可以通过一级话题链和非一级话题链来说明。在例中，话题I与my house之间的关系是领属与所属关系，因此，两者引导的话题链具有上下位的关系，同时，I又引导一级话题链，my house引导二级话题链。在上下位等几种关系的话题中，当其对立面的话题为一级话题时，其往往为非一级话题，这主要是因为这些话题之间的关系往往是部分意义延续之间的关系。因而，这些非一级话题结构往往可能作为插入链的成分与一级话题链构成更大的篇章单位。再者，插入成分往往是在超句话题链内。这样，一级或非一级话题链又与横向层次上的句子话题链、超句话题链或篇章话题链重合。

由此，整个篇章的话题链系统就可以根据篇章话题链、超句话题链和句子话题链而构建起来。根据这种话题链类型的分类，本文构建的话题链系统如图3。由于话题句和非话题结构都可以通过插入方式纳入到话题链中，因而该话题链系统也就反映了篇章中各种话题以各种方式的发展，也可称之为篇章的话题系统。

图3英语篇章话题系统

6 英语篇章样本分析

基于英语话题链系统的文本分析如下。

PaulGricei

[Herbert Paul Gricei, universally known as Paul, was born on March 13, 1913 in Birmingham, England and died on August 28, 1988 in Berkeley CA. Griceireceived firsts in classical honours moderation (1933) andliteraehumaniores(1935) from Corpus ChristiCollege, Oxford.][[After a year teaching in a public schoolij, [heireturned to Oxford where, with a nearly five year interruption for service in the Royal Navy, he taught in various positions until 1967 when he moved to the University of California-Berkeley. Heitaught there past his official 1979 retirement until his death in 1988. Heiwas philosophically active until his death — holding discussions at his home, giving lectures and editing a collection of his work that was posthumously published asStudiesintheWayofWords. Heiis best known for his innovative work in philosophy of language, but also made important contributions to metaphysics, ethics and to the study of Aristotle and Kant.]] [[His workikhas also been influential outside of philosophy in linguistics and artificial intelligence. [[[Although relatively little work was published during his lifeikl, he had a very wide influence via lectures and unpublished manuscripts. [[[[The best known of theseiklmweretheWilliamJamesLectureswhich he gave at Harvard in early 1967 and which circulated widely in unauthorized manuscript form until they were published as part ofStudiesintheWayofWords.]]]][Heialso played cricket, chess and piano, each at a very high level of accomplishment.] (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/grice/#Ove)

Paul Grice是篇章话题链的话题，Herbert Paul Grice, Grice, he与其同指。整个篇章话题链中又包括了两个上位的超句话题链，分别以After a year teaching in a public school和his work引导。前者插入了一个以he引导的次超句话题链，后者插入了Although relatively little work was published during his life引导的话题句，该话题句中的lectures and unpublished manuscripts又引出了The best known of these引导的话题句。

图4样本篇章的话题系统示意图

7 结束语

本文根据英语话题的全部语义延续以及部分语义延续等两种情况，从横向和纵向两个维度考察了英语话题链的形成，并构建了英语话题链系统。本话题链系统反映了篇章话题对篇章构成的影响，有效地把句子话题和篇章话题联系了起来。

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ATopicSystemofEnglishTexts

Wu Bi-yu Wang Jian-guo

(East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China)

English topics; types of topic chains; a topic system of English texts

*本文系国家社科基金青年项目“论话题的延续：基于话题链的汉英篇章研究”(08CYY002)的阶段性成果。感谢北京外国语大学中国外语教育研究中心陈国华教授、华东理工大学外国语学院邵志洪教授的悉心指导。

H030

A

1000-0100(2012)02-0081-4

2011-11-21

【责任编辑王松鹤】