理论与方法专栏 | 英语比较关联结构

编者按

《理论语言学五道口站》（2022年第41期，总第244期）理论与方法专栏为大家推荐德国艾希施泰特天主教大学教授兼英语语言和语言学系主任Thomas Hoffmann的著作：English Comparative Correlatives（《英语比较关联结构》）。该书于2021年10月在Cambridge University Press出版。

著作简介

English Comparative Correlatives

《英语比较关联结构》

Abstract：

One of the most intriguing features of languages is that speakers can produce novel grammatical utterances that they have never heard before. Consequently, most linguists agree that the mental grammars of speakers are complex systems that must be more abstract than the input they are exposed to. Yet, linguists differ as to how general and abstract speakers' mental representations have to be to allow this grammatical creativity. This book addresses this issue by empirically investigating one specific construction, English comparative correlatives (e.g., the more you eat, the fatter you get). Drawing on authentic corpus data from Old English to Present-day English varieties around the world, it shows how input frequency and domain-general cognitive principles affect the complex mental network of constructions that underlies speakers' linguistic behaviour. This pioneering and original study will be of interest to scholars and students of English syntax and English historical linguistics.

简介：

语言最有趣的特征之一是说话者可以说出他们以前从未听过的话语。因此，大多数语言学家认为说话者的心理语法比输入的语法具有更加抽象的复杂系统。然而，语言学家对于说话者的心理表征到底有多笼统和抽象才能允许这种语法创造力存在分歧。该书通过对特定的结构进行实证研究，即英语比较关联结构（例如，你吃得越多，你变得越胖）来探讨这个问题。该书利用古英语到现代英语变体的真实语料，阐述了输入频率和认知领域原则如何影响说话者语言行为的复杂心理结构。这项具有开创性的研究对英语句法和历史语言学研究者具有一定的启发作用。

-Thomas Hoffmann-

Thomas Hoffmann, 德国艾希施泰特天主教大学教授兼英语语言和语言学系主任。他是《英语中的介词位置》（剑桥，2011 年）一书的作者，目前从事剑桥语言学系列教科书的编纂工作。

Thomas Hoffmann is Professor and Chair of English Language and Linguistics at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. He is author of Preposition Placement in English (Cambridge, 2011) and he is currently writing the textbook for the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series.

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编辑：王平 丁子意

排版：王平 丁子意

审校：李芳芳 田英慧

英文编审负责人：丁子意