浅议“它”与“IT”在汉英语篇中指称功能的异同

本文在语料的基础上,对英语中的第三人称单数代词“IT”和汉语的“它”在语篇中的指称功能进行了对比分析,发现:(1)“IT”与“它”都可回指,用法也基本相同;(2)在预指方面,“IT”在一些特定的句型中常用于预指,而“它”很少用于预指;(3)“IT”和“它”都用于泛指,但“它”指称的对象相对来说比较空泛,不如“IT”那么具体。另外,“IT”有时还可用来指称人,“它”则没有这种用法。

A Comparison of the Referential Functions Between "it" and "TA" in English and Chinese Texts

Based on corpus, a comparison is carried out of the referential functions between "it" and "TA" in English and Chinese texts. This paper finds that (1) both "it" and "TA" can assume the anaphoric reference function; (2) cataphoric reference is a common practice for "it" in certain sentence patterns, but "TA" is seldom used this way; (3) "it" and "TA" can be both used for general reference, but in terms of referents, those "TA" refers to are more abstract and general compared with those of "it". In addition, sometimes "it" can be used to refer to a person but this does not happen to "TA".