论英语疑问句变化折射的语言生物进化现象

无论是古英语还是现代英语,其构成疑问句时,主语之前必须有填充词。在古英语中,填充词直接由动词v从屈折语素I位经连续提升进入补语连词位来构成疑问句。发展到现代英语,一部分动词虚化变成了情态动词,充当填充词,没有情态动词则出现了用助动词do作为填充词构成疑问句的现象。虽然转换生成语法的句法理论,对于疑问句结构的这种变化作了句法运算方面静态的描述,认为这种变化与转换生成句法构成的经济原则吻合,但本文认为疑问句的这种变化从另一个角度折射出语言的生物进化现象。

On the biological evolution of the English language reflected by the changes of interrogatives

Whether in Old English or Modern English, C ( complementizer) has to be filled in interrogatives. In old English and Early Modern English, interrogatives are formed by raising finite verbs first from V (verb) to I and then from I (inflection) to C by two successive applications of head movement. However, they are no longer grammatical in Modern Standard English in which interrogatives are formed by moving auxiliaries such as "will" and "do" into C to satisfy the requirement for the question affix Q (Question). Although the changes have been described by the theory of minimalism and the changes fit in with the Economy Principe, yet in this paper it is thought that the changes closely connected with and reflect the biological nature of the evolution of the English language.