对英语句子主谓数的一致问题的思考

英国语言学家夸克等人对英语句子主谓数的一致问题归纳的三条指导原则 ,被我国英语语法学者广为接受并在教科书中予以介绍。从哲学角度看 ,意义一致是就其语言表达内容而言 ,语法一致或就近原则是就其语言表现形式而言。内容和形式是辩证的对立统一关系 ,内容决定形式 ,形式反映内容 ,两者相辅相成 ,对立统一。事实上 ,绝大多数英语句子都符合这一客观规律 ,即既在意义上又在语法形式上保持数的一致 ,两者不相符的情况只是极个别的。因此 ,指导英语句子主谓数的一致问题的惟一原则是意义一致原则。

Some Thoughts on Subject - verb Concord in English

The three principles guiding the subject-verb concord of number in English, suggested by Quirk and his collaborators have been widely accepted and introduced by the Chinese scholars in their textbooks of grammar. From the philosophical point of view, notional concord is concerned with the semantic meaning of a sentence, i.e. the content of language, whereas grammatical concord or the proximity principle is concerned with the syntactical structure of a sentence, i.e. the form of language. Content and form are a unity of opposites. Content determines form while form reflects content. They are a mutually dependent and complementary unity of opposites. In fact, most English sentences abide by the dialectical principle, i.e. their subject and verb are in concord both notionally and grammatically, with only a few exceptions. The author holds the view that the only principle to guide subject-verb concord in English is notional concord.