彝語諾蘇話雙及物及其他三個論元結構

跨語言研究中的雙及物結構是一個句法－語義概念，由雙及物動詞及其三個論元——施事(A)、與事(R)和客體(T)組成，句法上可以有多種編碼方式，語義基礎為物品轉移義，其原型動詞是「給」。彝語諾蘇話「給」和其他的三個論元結構有一致性，可以將其公式化為：「N1:A-N2:T-ka³³-N3:R/L-V」或「N2:T-N1:A-ka³³-N3:R/L-V」，其語義基礎為處置義，ka³³是表示處置的輔動詞，支配客體T(heme)即N2；N3或為接受者R(ecipient)，或為處所L(ocation)；N1為施事者A(gent)。彝語諾蘇話沒有真正句法意義上的「雙及物」結構，而是通過兩個「單及物」結構，即連動結構來表示跨語言中的雙及物義。其中，第一個動詞為泛義的處置輔動詞ka³³，它也可以被表示具體的處置方式的實義動詞如「送」、「餵」、「賣」等替換，這些動詞與位於句末的第二個動詞「給」構成連動結構，此處的「給」有語義虛化的條件，但由於句法限制，不會在此結構中語法化為與格標記，因為彝語是動詞居末型語言。若兩個動詞都為實義動詞，則連動結構也不會出現動詞語法化的現象，如使動詞結構「T+『煮』+R+『吃』（使動）」中兩個動詞都不會產生語法化。簡言之，彝語諾蘇話中的這三類三個論元的句法結構表現都一致，用連動結構表達，它沒有真正意義上的雙及物結構，甚至沒有真正的三價動詞。「客體處置」義是這些結構共同的語義基礎。這一特點產生的原因是彝語諾蘇話核心論元的格標記不發達，語序是其論元組配的主要手段，連動結構是其表達策略。很顯然連動結構在彝語諾蘇話中具有能產、顯赫、多功能的特點。這是首次對彝語諾蘇話雙及物結構和其他相關結構進行詳細的描寫，為語言類型學研究提供了可資借鑒的語料，研究結論也對類型學的理論研究也有一定的啟示。

A ditransitive construction is a syntactic-semantic concept identified typologically in cross-linguistic studies. This construction is defined as consisting of a ditransitive verb, an agent argument (A), a recipient-like argument (R), a theme argument (T), and a fundamental semantic “transfer”. There are various ways to code the recipients and themes from a typological perspective, and ‘give’ is considered a prototypical ditransitive verb. In Nuosu Yi, the ‘give’ construction and other three-argument constructions follow the same syntactic principles and share common semantic properties. The constructions can be formulated as either {NP1[agent]-NP2[theme]-ka33-NP3[recipient/location]-VP}, or {NP2[theme]-NP1[agent]-ka33-NP3[recipient/location]-VP}, in which the coverb ka³³, “disposes” of the theme argument (NP2), which either precedes ka³³ or is at clause initial position due to topicalization. NP1 is the agent and NP3 can be a recipient or a location. The three-argument ka³³ construction expresses an event in which the actor transfers or disposes of the theme to someone or somewhere. Nuosu Yi does not exhibit a true ditransitive construction from a syntactic perspective. Instead, serial verb constructions (SVC) are utilized with ditransitive verbs in terms of semantic properties from a cross-linguistic perspective. For example, the highly grammaticalized coverb ka³³ can be substituted by lexical verbs such as ‘send’, ‘feed’, ‘sell’, followed by the second verb ‘give’ in the sentence final position of the SVC. The verb ‘give’ in this SVC has been semantically bleached but has not yet grammaticalized to a dative case marker due to syntactic restriction as Nuosu Yi is a verb-final language. If both verbs in SVC have lexicalized meanings, then neither of them will undergo grammaticalization, such as ‘boil’ and ‘eat’ in the causative construction “T+boil+R+eat.CAUS”. In this paper, we claim there are three subtypes of three-argument constructions in Nuosu Yi that exhibit conformity in both semantic and syntactic properties, i.e. disposal ka³³ constructions and strategies of serial verb construction. We demonstrate that Nuosu Yi does not exhibit a true syntactically ditransitive construction, nor does Nuosu Yi have true three-place verbs. We argue that lack of morphological case marking for disambiguating or identifying semantic roles of agent, theme, and recipient is the main reason for these structural properties. Hence, word order in Nuosu Yi is the primary means of argument alignment, and SVC is used to express three-argument events. SVC is a productive, powerful, and multifunctional construction and strategy in Nuosu Yi. This is the first descriptive data of ditransitive constructions and other three-argument constructions of Nuosu Yi, and the findings of this paper will shed a light on the theoretical study of linguistic typology.