摘要
Although the middle construction has attracted significant attention from syntacticians, its identity still remains controversial and it is not treated as a separate grammatical category in any English learner＇s dictionary. This article, based on the data collected from three English learner＇s dictionaries, investigates the middle construction in terms of its syntactic and semantic properties and the constraints on its use. It shows that the three learner＇s dictionaries treat the middle construction in inconsistent and problematic manners. The middle use of a verb is not distinguished from either transitive verbs with an implicit object or intransitive verbs, which may hinder English learners＇ acquisition of the construction. The article proposes that middle verbs should be treated as a separate subcategory of verbs on a par with transitive and intransitive verbs so that learners will become more aware of them and learn to use them correctly.
中动构造尽管引起了句法学家的很大兴趣,其性质仍然引发争议,而英语学习词典也没有把它作为一个单独的语法范畴对待。本文主要基于从三部英语学习词典提取的数据,对英语中动构造进行研究,探讨其句法和语义特征以及对其用法的制约。文章发现三部词典对中动构造的处理不一,存在问题,都不把谓词的中动用法与及物谓词省略宾语的用法和不及物谓词区别开来,这将对学习者习得中动构造造成一定的困难。本文提出,学习词典应将谓词的中动用法作为谓词的一个次类单独列出,与及物谓词和不及物谓词处于同一个层次上,以便学习者重视并掌握其用法。
