婴幼儿的语言

nbsp; 序
    胡壮麟
    由香港城市大学汉语、翻译和语言学系系主任Jonathan J．
Webster教授主编的，并由英国Continuum公司自2002年陆续出版
的《韩礼德文集》，总共10卷，已全部出齐。北京大学出版社获得
Continuum公司的授权后，负责文集在中国境内的出版，并组织国内
专家为读者撰写导读。这无疑是我国出版界和语言学界的一件大事。
    就当代语言学研究来说，20世纪下半叶一直表现为生成语言学
和功能语言学的对峙，说得具体些，当乔姆斯基在50年代末一度以他
的转换生成语法掀起一场革命，并成为国际上，特别是美国的语言学
研究的主流时，能揭竿而起并与之抗衡的便是韩礼德的系统功能语
法。①如果说乔姆斯基的理论得益于后来成为他“革命”对象的美国结
构主义，韩礼德则公开宣称他继承和发展了欧洲的弗斯学派、布拉格
学派和哥本哈根学派。正是这两种力量的冲突、挑战和互补推动了这
半个世纪精彩纷呈的语言学研究。
    《韩礼德文集二》在中国的出版还具有重要的意义，那就是韩礼德的
成就除了受到欧洲语言学传统的影响外，也从中国语言学传统获得滋
养。他早年师从罗常培先生和王力先生，在韩礼德的论著中不时绽放
出这些大师的思想火花。②《文集》的第8卷是*好的历史见证，在这
个意义上，《文集》的出版是一次学术上的回归，为我国语言学研究如
何实现全球化和本土化的结合提供了宝贵的经验。为此，北京大学出
 版社采纳了我们的建议，在出版10卷《文集》的同时，将第8卷全部译
成中文，另行出版中文版，以供汉语界参考。
    《文集》充分反映了韩礼德所走过的治学道路，其轨迹分见于各卷
的主要内容。韩礼德首先研究现代汉语(第8卷)，打好了音系学和方
言调查的扎实基础。回英国后，进入对普通语言学的研究(第1卷和
第3卷)，继承、发展和建立科学的语言学研究的理论，把握前进的方
向。为了在欧美学术界获得一席之地，韩礼德在此时期把英语作为研
究分析对象(第7卷)。在研究方法上，他注意**手材料的收集(第4
卷)，将语言学研究从句子层面提高到在具体语境中出现的语篇和话
语(第2卷)，因此他的研究是经得起实际的检验的。韩礼德特别注意
语言学理论的价值在于它的应用，能否说明社会生活中的问题，并为
社会服务，前者见之于第10卷的“语言与社会”，后者反映于第9卷的
“语言与教育”。曾经有位学者向韩礼德提问，为什么转换生成语法在
中国国内打不开局面，而系统功能语法却响应者众多?这两卷的内容
有助于人们找到答案。20世纪下半叶是现代科学技术，特别是电子
技术，获得飞速发展的时代。韩礼德时年七八十岁，他能在自己的晚
年，关注语言与科学技术的关系(第5卷和第6卷)，这种活到老、学到
老的精神令人钦佩不已。
    *后，《文集》只概括了韩礼德2002年以前的主要论著和节选，因
此有关韩礼德的学术思想和成就有待我们进一步挖掘和学习。其次，
这几年韩本人一直是老骥伏枥，笔耕不辍，勤于思索。如2006年3月
26日韩礼德教授在香港城市大学的“韩礼德语言研究智能应用中心”
成立大会上，做了题目为“研究意义：建立一个适用语言学”的主旨报
告。韩提出适用语言学(appliable linguistics)的长期目标是为了建立
语言的意义发生系统，其工作机制是以社会理据来解释和描写语义发
生，可见韩礼德已经认识到语言学研究*终要解决对“意义”的描写。
对这个问题，结构主义和生成主义学派是不研究的，系统功能语言学
在功能语义学方面只是刚刚起步，这将是语言学界在新世纪为之共叵
奋斗的目标。
    参加《韩礼德文集》导读编写者均为我国著名学府的学者，在系统
功能语言学研究方面享有盛誉，仅在此表示感谢。
 卷别／导读作者
第1卷  论语法／黄国文(中山大学教授／博导)
第2卷  语篇和话语的语言学研究／朱永生(复旦大学教授／博导)
第3卷论语言和语言学／方  琰(清华大学教授)
第4卷  婴幼儿的语言／李战子(南京国际关系学院教授／博导)
第5卷科学语言／杨信彰(厦门大学教授／博导)
第6卷  计算机与定量语言／林允清(北京师范大学教授／博导)
    ／于  晖(解放军外国语学院副教授／博士)
第7卷  英语语言研究／何伟(北京科技大学副教授／博士)
第8卷  汉语语言研究／彭宣维(北京师范大学教授／博导)
第8卷  汉语语言研究(汉译版)／彭宣维(北京师范大学教授／博导)
第9卷  语言与教育／张德禄(中国海洋大学教授／博导)
第10卷  语言与社会／任绍曾(浙江大学教授)

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
The mozher tongue is a very natural extension of the child tongue. The
chapters in this part focus on the evolution from child to adult language,
through transitional Phase II to mastery of the adult system in Phase III.
The distinction between the pragmatic and the mathetic - "language as
action, and language as reflection" - gradually gives way as utterances
become at once both ideational and interpersonal. Both lexicogrammar
and texture are added to the system. In Chapter 7, 'Into the Adult
Language' (1975), Professor Halliday explains that mastery of the adult
system, at about the end of the child's second year, means that the child
has successfully "constructed for hirhself a three-level semiotic system
which is organized the way the adult language is”. Ofcourse, this is not
to say that the chfid has already mastered the language; but the
foundations are now firmly in place.
   Chapter 7 also looks at the development of text-forming resources in
 Nigel's speech. Nigel's control of information structure is evidenced by
 "his ability to assign a focus of information by locating the tonic
 prominence". About the second halfofhis second year, Nigel develops
 certain semantic patterns for giving cohesion to discourse. His speech,
 also, exhibits sensitivity to the particular generic structures associated
 with narrative and dialogue modes.
    "Child language studies", writes Professor Halliday in Chapter 8,
 'The Contribution of Developmental Linguistics to the Interpretation
 of Language as a System' (1980), "point strongly to a functional
 interpretation of the linguistic system; and in doing so, they help to
 provide a wider context for theories of language". Ifwe follow the route
 by which the simple contrast of pragmafic/mathetic, which is Nigel's
 functional setting for the transition from protolanguage to language,
 develops into the metafunctional framework of the adult semantic
 system, we can appreciate "exactly how the functional demands that are
 made on language have shaped the linguistic system". Studies from both
 linguistic and developmental perspectives are mutually enriched when
approached from "an interactional, functional and meaning-oriented,
or semiotic, standpoint", argues Professor Halliday in Chapter 9, 'On
the Transition from Child Tongue to Mother Tongue' (1983). Having
pioneered research into the child's construal of his mother tongue,
Professor Halliday had to wait until the early 1980s - when this chapter
was first published - before detailed accounts of other participant-
observers of children's speech were available for comparison with his
own findings. As he notes in this chapter, "the figures are remarkably
similar".
   Looking at dialogue “as a form of the exchange of social meanings ...
as a semiotic process, and therefore as one that is in principle capable of
being realized through systems other than language", Professor Halliday
presents some examples in Chapter 10, 'A Systemic-Functional
Interpretation of the Nature and Ontogenesis of Dialogue', of
exchanges between Nigel and his parents, and also discusses how
Nigel developed his system of dialogue. Chapter 11, 'The Place of
Dialogue in Children's Construction of Meaning', further explores the
ontogenesis of dialogue, showing “how the text interacts with its
environment, such that meaning is created at the intersection of two
contradictions; the experiential one, between the material and the
conscious modes of experience, and the interpersonal one, between the
different personal histories of the interactants taking part”.
 INTO THE ADULT LANGUAGE
                     (1975)
1 Reality at nine months (NL 1)
Here we shall try to take further the interpretation of Nigel's progress
through Phase II, the transition from his own protolanguage into the
mother tongue. In Phase I, Nigel had constructed a semiotic based on
the primary distinction between himself and the rest of reality, the
environment of people and of things.
   This pattern begins to emerge already at NL 1, and underlies the
functional system that was discussed in previous chapters． At that stage,
Nigel's semiotic universe consists of a self and a non-self, the
environment; the environment consists of persons and of objects; and
the persons figure in the two contexts of interaction and of control.
   I. THE SELF. The meanings that are associated with the self ('personal'
function) realize the states and processes of his own consciousness. The
orientation may be either inward (withdrawal into the self: ‘I’m sleepy') or
outward; within the latter there is a distinction between the affect function
(pleasure, in general and specifically focused on taste) and the curiosity
function (interest, in general and specifically focused on movement).