理论与方法专栏 | 语言变化、变异与共性

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《理论语言学五道口站》（2021年第49期，总第183期）理论与方法专栏为大家推荐美国俄亥俄州立大学语言学教授Peter W. Culicover的著作：Language Change, Variation, and Universals（《语言变化、变异与共性》）。该书将于2021年10月在Oxford University Press出版。

著作简介

Language Change, Variation, and Universals

《语言变化、变异与共性》

简介：

该书探讨了人类语言的进化，主要分析了不同的语言存在共性和差异的原因，以及语言在变化方式上产生不同的原因。鉴于语言是人类思维的普遍产物，该书关注的核心问题是——为什么会有不同的语言，即为什么我们说的不是同一种语言？此外，虽然不同语言之间存在相当大的差异，但在某些方面，这些语言的语法又具有统一性。那么，为什么不同的语言在某些方面存在共性，而在这些方面更具普遍性呢？

该书作者Peter Culicover为这些问题提供了一个结构性解决方案。语法由表达通用概念的结构组成。虽然理论上语法的组成可以由许多不同方式来完成，但不断降低结构的复杂性仍旧是语言进化的趋势。其结果是，在复杂性较低的方向上存在结构的变化，一些语法模式的出现，则更有效地反映了概念上的普遍性。全书包括三个部分：第一部分建立理论基础，第二部分研究英语、普莱恩斯克里语等多种语言的论元结构、语法功能和A-bar结构，第三部分考察日耳曼语的结构变化。最后，本书讨论了参数理论、类比、类型模式的起源、以及Greenberg的“语言共性”。

Abstract:

This volume explores how human languages become what they are, why they differ from one another in certain ways but not in others, and why they change in the ways that they do. Given that language is a universal creation of the human mind, the puzzle is why there are different languages at all: why do we not all speak the same language? Moreover, while there is considerable variation, in some ways grammars do show consistent patterns: why are languages similar in those respects, and why are those particular patterns preferred?

Peter Culicover proposes that the solution to these puzzles is a constructional one. Grammars consist of constructions that carry out the function of expressing universal conceptual structure. While there are in principle many different ways of accomplishing this task, languages are under press to reduce constructional complexity. The result is that there is constructional change in the direction of less complexity, and grammatical patterns emerge that more efficiently reflect conceptual universals. The volume is divided into three parts: the first establishes the theoretical foundations; the second explores variation in argument structure, grammatical functions, and A-bar constructions, drawing on data from a variety of languages including English and Plains Cree; and the third examines constructional change, focusing primarily on Germanic. The study ends with observations and speculations on parameter theory, analogy, the origins of typological patterns, and Greenbergian 'universals'.

作者简介

-Peter W. Culicover-

Peter W. Culicover，俄亥俄州立大学荣休教授，曾任加州大学欧文分校、亚利桑那大学语言学系主任，威尼斯大学富布赖特理论语言学杰出主席，洪堡研究奖（由亚历山大·冯·洪堡基金会颁发）获得者。他的研究主要涉及句法结构的解释与理解，并对诸如语言可学习性、语言习得和语言变化的计算建模、焦点语法、语法结构、现代英语语法及其结构等主题进行了深入的探究。其多本著作已在牛津大学出版社出版，包括《极简句法》（与Ray Jackendoff合著，2005年）、《自然语言句法》（2009年）、《语法与复杂性》（2013年）及《解释句法》（2013年）。

Peter W. Culicover is currently Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the Ohio State University. He previously held positions at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Arizona, where he was Head of the Department of Linguistics. His awards include the Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Venice and the Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. His research is concerned primarily with understanding and explaining the syntactic structure of human languages, and he has explored such topics as language learnability, computational modeling of language acquisition and language change, the grammar of focus, grammatical constructions, the grammar of contemporary English and the architecture of grammar. His many publications include the OUP volumes Simpler Syntax (with Ray Jackendoff, 2005), Natural Language Syntax (2009), Grammar and Complexity (2013), and Explaining Syntax (2013).

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编辑：王秋梅 王平

排版：王秋梅 王平

审校：王丽媛 李芳芳