Cognitive Contrastive Study of English and Chinese Passives.doc

英汉被动句认知对比研究摘 要本文从认知语言学的角度出发,对英汉被动句进行对比分析。首先，本文运用被动概念在英汉两种语言中的事件理想化认知模式(简称为eicm) 这一认知基础，来挖掘英汉被动句的原型。发现英汉被动句原型都产生于事件的状态观,表达的是一个自足的(即没有外因出现的)理想化状态性事件。反映在句法上,两种语言有相同的受事+状态结构,其中后者是对前者的说明。但是，在语言运用中，人们发现并不是所有的被动句都遵循这一事件的理想化认知模式,而是由其衍生出了英汉被动句的特殊形式。通过分析发现，无施事被动句因符合事件理想化认知模式（eicm）而被视为被动态的原型,而有施事的被动句因偏离了事件的理想化认知模式（eicm）而成为被动态的特殊形式。英汉语在被动句原型和特殊形式方面,既相似又相异。其次，为了进一步研究英汉被动句的不同，本文运用认知语言学的基本假设 “人类经验概念化图式化语言形式”这一演变顺序，从被动句的语法差异，句法结构差异和语用功能角度出发,对其进行进一步对比分析，从而真正掌握英汉被动句的本质。通过上述论述，旨在更好的掌握和应用英汉被动句。关键词：英语；汉语；被动句；认知；对比研究abstract in this paper, a contrastive study is conducted from the cognitive linguistic point of view on english and chinese passives. first of all, this paper applies the cognitive basis “idealized cognitive model of the events” (referred to as eicm), to digging the prototypes of english and chinese passives. and it is found out that the prototypes of english and chinese passive sentences are deviated from the state of the event, and expresses a self-contained (that is, not emerging external factors), idealistic state of the event. in syntax, the two languages have the same patient + state structure, in which the latter is the description of the former. however, in language use, people find that not all passives comply with the rules and express a self-contained state. then the special forms of passives are formed. from the analysis we can find that agentless passive sentence in line with the eicm should be regarded as the prototype of the passives, and agent passive sentence which deviates from the eicm becomes the special form of passives. english and chinese passive sentences have similarities and differences in both prototype and special forms. furthermore, in order to better study english and chinese passives, the article applies the basic assumptions of cognitive linguistics as “the concept of human experience generalization schema language form”, to analyzing passives from the angles of grammar, syntax and pragmatics. it aims to master and apply english and chinese passives more profoundly. key words: english; chinese; passives; cognition; contrastive studycontentsintroduction .1. prototypes of english and chinese passives.11.1 prototypes of english passives.11.2 prototypes of chinese passives21.3 similarities and differences between english and chinese passive prototypes.31.3.1 similarities between english and chinese passive prototypes31.3.2 differences between english and chinese passive prototypes4. deviated forms of english and chinese passive sentences.42.1 special forms of english passives.52.2 special forms of chinese passives.52.3 similarities and differences of special forms of english and chinese passives.62.3.1 similarities of special forms of english and chinese passives.62.3.2 differences of special forms of english and chinese passives7. differences between english and chinese passives in other aspects.73.1 grammatical differences between english and chinese passives.73.2 syntactic differences between english and chinese passives.93.3 pragmatic differences of english and chinese passives.113.4 underlying principles governing english and chinese passives.123.4.1 principles of english passive sentences in different discourse.123.4.2 principles of chinese passive sentences in different discourse13 3.4.3 common characteristics of english and chinese passives13conclusion.13bibliography.14acknowledgements.15cognitive contrastive study of english and chinese passivesintroductiondifferent languages have different forms to express passive concept, so do english and chinese languages. generally speaking, english passive sentences are used more frequently than the chinese ones. english passive sentence is formed by the passive form of verb. chinese passive sentence is formed by the “被” sentence. this article will compare and contrasts the english and chinese passives from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, including the prototype of english and chinese passives, underlying principles governing english and chinese passives, grammatical, syntactic and pragmatic differences, in order to find out the nature of english and chinese passives. by the study of english and chinese passives, i hope it can help learners use english and chinese passives more appropriately. at the same time, it will help teachers have a better teaching.prototypes of english and chinese passivesprototypes of english and chinese passives are the deep characteristics of passives that passive sentences conform to idealized cognitive model of events (eicm), expressing self-contained patterns of the incident.1.1 prototypes of english passivesas we all know, english language is a morphological language. all english passives are formed as patterns “patient +v-ed participle”. furthermore, according to the idealized cognitive model of events (eicm) view “the prototype of passive sentence should be a self-contained pattern of the incident” .so the prototype of english passives can be thought as following sentences (a type):a: subject (patient) + be + v-ed participle. for example: a1 the work was done.a2 the cap was blown away.in a1, a2, the patient is inanimate object. the syntactic structure is fixed that the subject also as patient must be followed by the link verb “be” +v-ed participle. in these sentences, we find that the agent is omitted because its not necessary to refer to the agent in passives. therefore, the agentless passives are used more frequently and considered as the prototypes of passives. 1.2 prototypes of chinese passivesas the chinese verb form doesnt have the voice changes, it often expresses passive meaning by some functional auxiliary verbs, such as “得，了，过” and so on. therefore the prototype of chinese passives is divided into different ways (b type).b1 n (inanimate) patient+ v你要的那本书买了。这个问题讨论过。b2 n patient+ v1 v2我的车碰坏了。你要的那本书买到了。b3 n patient+ v1 +functional auxiliary verb(得)+ v2被子叠得整整齐齐的。b4 n (animate) patient+ v鸡杀了。小偷抓住了。黑旋风拿住了。in b1, b2 and b3, the patient is generally inanimate objects. the chinese-speaking people think that inanimate objects in the human experience are the object of the patient, so when these objects have been affected, the sentences directly add the verbs like in b1“买了”, b2“碰坏”“买到”and b3“叠” to express the passive concept. this generally will not cause misunderstanding; such a passive sentence is considered as the prototype of chinese passive sentences.although the patient is animate in b4, in peoples experience or action it is often regarded as the target of certain action, and placed before the verb and not be mistaken for the agent. so the chinese character “被” which symbolizes the passive concept can be omitted and the sentence becomes the prototype of passives.1.3 similarities and differences between english and chinese passive prototypesby study the above english and chinese passive prototypes, we can find they have some similarities as well as differences.1.3.1 similarities between english and chinese passive prototypeswe can see from the analysis above, english and chinese passives have many in common.one similarity is that their cognitive semantic structure is consistent with each other. the origin of both of them is derived from idealized cognitive model of events (eicm), which is self-contained(自足), and there is no external event occurring to the state. both english and chinese passive prototypes can be divided into two parts, namely, patient + state; the latter part state is a description of the former part patient. for example: (1)你要的那本书买了。(2)the enemywas defeated.(3)这个问题讨论过。(4)the capwas blown away.in (1),(2),“那本书” and “问题”are the patients.“买了”and“讨论过”are the states or predicates .we can find that the states are the descriptions of the patients. the same is to (2) and (4). in the two sentences, “the enemy” and “the cap” are the patients. “was defeated” and “was blown away” are the states or predicates. the states are the descriptions of the patients.the other one is that the majority of passives are passives without the appearance of the agent. prototype of english passives is formed as “patient +v-ed participle”. prototypes of chinese passives are the forms as “ patient+ v ”, “ patient+v1v2 ”, “ patient+v1+得+v2 ” , “patient(animate)+v ” . its not difficult to find most english and chinese passives omit the agent and become the prototype of the passives.1.3.2 differences between english and chinese passive prototypesbut there are two differences in terms of performance and these differences are mainly reflected in the following two aspects: one is that the concept of english passive includes changing word order, verb morphology and the use of semi-independence empty word. for example, i closed the dormitory door.the dormitory was closed by me.we can find easily that the first sentence is an active one. the second sentence is a passive one derived from the first one. the subject “i” in the first one is changed into “by” phrase in the passive one. and the object “the dormitory door” in the first one is changed into subject in the second one. therefore, the word order is changed. at the same time, the verb in active voice is changed into passive voice. so the verb morphology is changed, too. furthermore, in order to reserve the agent, the passive sentence uses the empty word “by”. however, the concept of chinese passive doesnt involve change in word order, in some cases the use of empty word is to express the passive concept，such as “得”,“了”,“过”. for example, 这个问题讨论过了。被子叠的整整齐齐的。饭吃过了。the other is that english passives have form changes which are from subject to object (including changes in case). for example, he married her.she is married to him.in these two sentences, “her” is changed into t “she”, and “he” is changed into “him”. so the concept of the passive form does not need to distinguish whether the patient is animate or not, and whether there is relationship between patient and action. however, chinese verbs do not have a form change, for example, “我的车被碰坏了” . in this sentence, we can find predicate “碰” is still in active voice, and its not changed into passive voice.deviated forms of english and chinese passive sentencesprototypes of english and chinese passive sentences are the ideal models that people are expected to observe when expressing a passive concept. however, these prototypes are not always exactly observed. both in english and in chinese, there are passive forms deviated from the eicm, thus they become special forms of passive sentences. they are regarded as deviated forms of english and chinese passives, which are also called as special forms of english and chinese passives.2.1 special forms of english passivesthe english passives which deviate from the incident state achieve the concept by the following ways: the first way is to introduce of the agent, subject + be +-ed participle + preposition + noun phrase (agent).e.g. the violin was made by my father.we were all worried about the complication.i was a bit surprised at her behavior.the second one is to express passive concept by the verb and physic-chemical incident. subject + modal verb + be +-ed sub word + preposition + noun phrase (agent)e.g. he may be kissed.he is being kissed.the third is to add modal auxiliary (for example, may), “initiative” (for example, get) subject (patient) + link verb-ed participle + preposition + noun phrase (agent)e.g. the house is getting rebuilt.i feel rather let down by his indifference.2.2 special forms of chinese passivesas mentioned above, the chinese passive sentence without “被” describing the state of the patient, is treated as the prototype of a passive sentence, while the “被” sentence describes the process which the patient is affected and forced by external forces leading to a state change, or the change of the state expressed by the predicate does not meet with the speakers imagination or cognition. so they are special forms of chinese passive sentences.c1 n patient + (被) + n agent + v 大衣被她脱了。苹果被弟弟吃了。c2 n patient + (被) + n agent + v + n patient 1花儿被我浇了水了.c3 n patient + (被) + n agent by + v1 v2; n patient + (被) + v1 v2 我的书被她翻乱了。饭被吃光了。c4 n patient + (被) + n agent + v1 + 得+ v2哥哥被她逼得无路可走.c5 n patient+(被)+v她被撞伤了。in c1, “大衣” “苹果” are affected and forced by external forces “她”and “弟弟”, and the predicate is not the will of the subject. so the state of patient is changed from “穿着”“没吃”to “脱”“吃了”.in c2, patient “花儿” is affected and forced by external forces “我”, so the state of patient is changed from “没浇水” to “浇了水了”.in c3,patient“书”“饭” are affected and forced by external forces“她”“某人”, so the state of patient is changed from “没翻乱”“没吃光” to “翻乱”“吃光”. the state is over the speakers imagination and leads to a bad effect.in c4, patient “哥哥” is affected and forced by external forces “她”, so the state of patient is changed to “无路可走”. the state is over the speakers imagination and leads to a bad effect.the patient is animate object in c5. when the animate objects are put at the beginning of a sentence, they are often treated as the sender of the action. if they are used to express the concept of patient, the “被” is added to express the passive concept. so such a passive sentence is considered as the deviation of the prototype of the passive. as mentioned above, there are still a lot of other special forms. however, as space limited, the article just refers to these.2.3 similarities and differences of special forms of english and chinese passives2.3.1 similarities of the special forms of english and chinese passivesthe special forms both english and chinese passive sentence are consistent in cognitive semantic structure and cause. they both are the state deviating from idealized cognitive model of events, expressing a non-state event.2.3.2 differences of special forms of english and chinese passiveshowever, as english and chinese languages are different in the syntactic structures, they take different forms when they express the same semantic structures. the difference mainly reflected in the following aspect: one is that the special forms of english passives are mainly displayed through the use of preposition “by” to introduce the doer(施动者), which is placed after the verb. for example, the violin was made by my father. the doer “my father” is introduced by the preposition “by”. however, the doer is often placed between the patient and the verb in chinese. for example,苹果被弟弟吃了。the doer “弟弟” is placed before the verb“吃了” and after patient“苹果”.this is because the chinese language is ideographic, and english is morphological. for example, english passives are composed by the forms of “patient + v-ed participle”, and all english passives must comply with this principle. chinese passives must comply with the meaning which the sentence wants to express.if english puts the doer before the verb, the expression of a passive concept will be affected. in addition, the introduction of chinese doer is more complicated. doer sometimes can not be marked when it is introduced, and sometimes it must be marked, and sometimes it is not essential. because of space limitations, this article can only compare “by” sentence in english and “被”in chinese. differences between english and chinese passives in other aspectsthis article has discussed the prototypes and special forms of english and chinese passives. besides, there are still other differences in other aspects. so this article will discuss the topic from grammatical, syntactic and pragmatic angles, and underlying principles governing english and chinese passives.3.1 grammatical differences between english and chinese passivesthe basic assumptions of cognitive linguistics are based on “the concept of human experience generalization schema language form” (xiong xueliang, wang zhijun, 2003:196). this assumption means that passive concept is first formed in human experiences, and then it is used by majority people in daily life. gradually, it is considered as a rule in the use of passives, and then linguists become it as a language form. the concept of passive in english and chinese language is a result of factors change state (croft, 1993:89-117; xiong xueliang, wang zhijun, 2003: 196), which is the typical idealized cognitive model of the events (referred to as eicm) for the cognitive basis. in other words, the prototypes of passive sentences in english and chinese are from the event of state, and express a self-contained (that is, not emerging external factors), idealistic state of the event. in the syntax, the two languages have the same patient + state structure, the latter is the description of the former.according to given (1990), typical english passive sentences in syntax are evolved from the results of the adjective state structure “to be + v-ed form” of the passive structure of a passive process, involving changes of word order, the term grid changes, changes in the form of the verb and the use of semi - independent of the empty word. in contrast, chinese is lack of morphological changes of the verb, so grammatical means are mainly to change the sentence in word order, the use of empty words in some situation. after he studied the development of the chinese passive from the old chinese to modern chinese, mr. wang