摘 要

语言学对词序的研究由来已久，传统上，人们已经从多种角度对其进行了描述和分类，但大多数研究是从语言结构内部出发，忽视了语言外部的因素。二十世纪八十年代兴起的认知语言学认为语言和认知有着不可分割的联系，语言的创建、学习及运用，基本上都必须能够透过人类的认知而加以解释。在此基础上的象似性理论为研究英汉词序提供了一个新视角，根据象似性理论，人的概念或经验结构与语言结构存在着一定的自然联系，词序并不是杂乱无章，无理可依的，而是有其内在的规律和准则，而这种规律性则映照了人类的思维方式和概念认知模式。本文从象似性理论出发，以英汉词序为研究对象，运用象似性原则对英汉在短语和句法层面的词序特性进了对比分析，从而发现英汉两个民族在思维模式，文化观点以及认知概念上的异同点，揭示了人类的认知奥秘。可以说从象似性角度探究词序奥秘是对前人研究的补充和完善，而这种研究又因其可以减轻学习的记忆负担提高信息加工率，对于外语教学和语言理解起到了一定的促进作用。
  
关键词：词序；象似性理论；认知语言学；英汉对比
 
Abstract

Word order has been the focus in linguistic study for a long time. In spite of the traditional study on its description and classification within language from various aspects, its correspondence with the outer factors was overlooked. The cognitive linguistics, emerging in 1980s, asserts that, there exists an inextricable linking between the language and the cognition, and the forming, learning, as well as the application of language must be explained through human’s cognition. Base on which, the iconicity theory in cognitive linguistics, claiming the natural relations between one’s conceptual or experiential structure and the language structure, provides the study on English and Chinese word order with a new perspective. According to the principle, word order, rather than being in utter disorder without rule to observe, is motivated with its inherent rules and principles which mirror the thinking mode and cognitive pattern of human beings. This essay, under the guidance of iconicity theory, with English and Chinese word order as its studying object, makes a comparative analysis in English and Chinese word order at the phrasal syntactic level, accordingly, discovers the similarities and differences of the 2 peoples with regard to thinking mode, cultural attitude and cognitive style, and discloses the mystery of human’s cognition. It can be said that the approach from iconicity theory is the supplement to the previous studies with its improvement. In addition, the study also contributes to the foreign language teaching and language comprehension due to the fact that it can alleviate the burden of memorizing and raise the rate of processing information.

Keywords: Word Order; Iconicity Theory; Cognitive Linguistics; a Comparison between English and Chinese