ProposalforBAThesis
I.Title:AStudyontheDifferencesofTopicsandSubjectsinEnglishandChinese
II.Introduction
Chinesegrammarsystem,inonesense,isbasicallyanimitationofwesterngrammarsystems.Butwhenweputintopratice,manyChinesegrammarianshavefoundthattherulesofthewesternizedlanguagesdonotholdwater.Therefore,manydisputesandcontroversieshavearisen,especiallythedifferencesofTopicsandSubjectsinEnglishandChinese.ItisnecessarytocombinethetraditionalresearchonChinesegrammarwiththecontemporarywesterntheoryofgrammar,sothatitcanhelpourChinesegrammarresearchjointthemainstreamofLinguisticsworldwideandbringthetwowaytogether---trytofindtheuniversalgrammar.Webelievethat,theprocessinconformityisnotalwaysSmoothandpleasant,buttheresultsaresupposedtobenefitChinaandtheworldfinally.
III.LiteratureReview
SubjectandtopicastwobasicconceptsinmodernLinguistics,theirrelationshipisconsideredasthecrucialresearchprojectandheatedtopicinLinguistics.
1,Subjectisoriginatedformthewesterngrammarsystems.Ingenerallinguistics,manyscholarsaretryingtogiveacurrentconcepttosubject.Accordingtotheresearchonallkindsoflanguagesaroundtheworld,Keenan(1976)summerizedthegrammatical,semanticandtextualfeaturesthatsubjecthas.ThefollowingareconclusionTrask(1993:266)madefromallkindsofdocumentsincludingKeenan(1976)(参见石毓智，2019):
Subjectisthenounphrasethatprobablyhasthemostprominentfeatureinsyntacticrelationinsentence.Subjecthasallkindsoffeaturesingrammar,syntaticsandtext,mainlyconsistingof:
1Subjectrepresentsindependentsubstance;
2Subjectrestrictstheco-referenceinsentence,includingpronoun,reflexivepronounandnullanaphor;
3Subjectrestrictstheagreementinverbs;
4Subjectisthetopicwithnomark;
5Subjectcanbequestionedbyinterrogativepronoun,andalsocanbefocused.
6Subjectisusuallylackofmorphologicalmarkers.
7Subjectisususllyconsideredastheactorofunmarkedstructure.
Hisconclusionmaybemoresuitabletodescribethecharactersofwesternlanguages.ConcerningChinese,partofthedescritionfailtoreflectthelinguisticfactinChinese.Forexample,Traskthoughtthatsubjectisthetopicwithnomark.Heneglectedofpragmaticfeatureoftopic.Becausewecan’tconfirmwhetherthesubjectisequaltothetopicinasinglesentence.Andhealsothoughtthatsubjectisususllyconsideredastheactorofunmarkedstructure,whichisnotaccordtothefactinourChinese.AsinChinese,notonlyactor,butalsopatient,instrument,timingandlocationcanactassubjectinsentence.
2,In2019,ShiYuzhitriedtoconcludeaboutthesubject’scharacteristersinforminChinese.Hisconclusionisasfollowed:
Theformofthesubjectcanbeplacedbothinsubordinateclauseandsentence.
Subjectcanbefocused.
Subjectcanbequestionedbyinterrogativepronoun.
Anditssemanticcharactersare:
Subjectistheactorofbehavioract.
Subjectisthemainbodyofnatureandstate.
Shithoughtthatthemaindifferencebutweensubjectandtopicisthatsubjectistheingredientofgrammaticalstructurewhiletopicbelongstothediscourseconcept.Theformeronecanbeputintosentenceandsubordinateclause;thelatteronlycanstayinsentenceaspect.Buthismethodtodistinguishsubjecttotopicseemstobeabitvague.AsinChinese,thereisakindofsentenceinunusualorder,forexample:“书小王看完了”.InShi’sopinion,thatisatopicstructureforitcannotbeplacedinaclause.Butinfact,itbelongstoaclassicalsubject-predicatesentence.“书”iseitherthesubject,orthetopic.
3,SinceZhaoYuanrenintroduced‘topoc’intoourgrammarstudyinChinese,thescholarsinChinesehomeandabroadkeepgoingwithresearchontopic.LiNa&Thompsonaretherepresentativesonthisissue.They’vedoneasystematiccontracttosubjectandtopic.Theysaidthattopicmeanswhatisaboutinthesentencewhilesubjectiswhattheverbpredicates;topiccannotbeindefiniteandgenericbutsubjectcan;topichavetoappearatthefrontofasentencewhilesubjectisallowedtoappearinthesentence;therealwaysbeapausebetweentopicwithotherpartsofasentence.ButinChinese,itisnotnecessarythatthetopicappearatthefrontofasentence.Forexample:“老师，这件事让我来处理吧。”Inthissentence,“这件事”isthetopic,butitdoesn’tappearatthefrontofasentence.
4,ItisgenerallyacceptedthatsubjectisaconceptofsyntacticstructureswhiletopicbelongstoPragmatics.ButXuLiejiong&LiuDanqing(1998)didn’t.Intheirthesis,theyconsidertopicasaingredientofsyntacticstructures.Justlikesujectandobject,thetopicalsoshareapositioninasentence.Asanindependentingredient,eachofthemshouldhasitsownpositionandcannotbeoverlapped.Then,let’sanalyzethisfollowingsentence“小张不来了。”.“小张”isthesubjectandtopicatthesametime.subjectandtopichavebeenoverlapped,soitdoesn’tworktoconsidertopicasaningredientofsyntacticstructures.
5QuChengxi(1996),asaspecialistoffunctionalgrammar,thoughtthatifoneonlyadopthisowntheorywhenheisdoingresearchonChinesegrammal,hewillalwaysfeelimpractical.Weshouldtrytoappreciateother’sthinkingsorevenacceptthemifavailableandnoconflictarisen.AndIthinkhisopinionisquitefittogrammarstudyonChinese.
IV.MethodsandMaterials
ThroughreadingmaterialsfromlibraryandtheInternet,I’veacknowledgedmuchaboutsubjectandtopicinChineseandEnglishandtheirdifferences.Manyscholarshavedefinedthesubjectandtopicinmanydifferentangles,suchastheform,cognition,functionandsoon.Iprefertostudysubjectandtopicfromfunctionalgrammarthanfromtheothers.Atthesametime,itwillbebasiconcognitionandcommunication.
V.Discussion
Guidedbytheliteraturereview,thereisapointweshouldmakesure,subjectisaconceptofsyntacticstructureswhiletopicbelongstoPragmaticswhateverourresearchgoalsareandfromdifferentangles.Atthesametime,wehavetoacceptthatChineseisalanguagethatislackofmorphologicalchangeandisverydifficulttodistinguishsubjectfromtopic.Sowhenwearedoingthiskindofresearch,weshouldtryourbesttodefineitclearly,especiallyformally.
VI.OutlineofthePaper
1.Introduction
2.SubjectandtopicinEnglish
2.1SubjectinEnglish
2.1.1DisputeoversubjectinEnglish
2.1.2DefinitionofsubjectinEnglish
2.1.3Choiceofsubjectanditssemanticrole
2.2TopicinEnglish
3.SubjectandtopicinChinese
3.1SubjectinChinese
3.1.1ImportanceofsubjecttoChinese
3.1.2Choiceofsubjectanditssemanticroles
3.2TopicinChinese
4.AComparisonbetweenChineseandEnglish
4.1SubjectinChineseandEnglish
4.2TopicinChineseandEnglish
5.Conclusion
VII.References
[1]曹(Cao)逢甫主题在汉语中的功能研究[M].北京:语文出版社,1995:36
[2]屈(Chu)承熹.汉语认知功能语法[M].黑龙江:黑龙江人民出版社，2019:2~5.
[3]屈(Chu)承熹.汉语功能语法刍议[J].世界汉语教学.1998,4:28-42
[4]屈(Chu)承熹.从汉语的焦点与话题看英语中的Y-Movement及其它倒装句[J].外语学刊.1993.3
[5]石(Shi)毓智.汉语的主语与话题之辨F[J].语言研究.2019,43(2):82-91.
[6]徐(Xu)烈炯&刘(Liu)丹青.话题的结构与功能[M].上海:上海教育出版社,1998:43
[7]袁(Yuan)毓林.话题化及其相关的语法过程[J].中国语文.1996,4
[8]张(Zhang)伯江&方(Fang)梅.汉语功能语法研究[M].南昌:江西教育出版社,1996