疑问副词how有表示疑问和表示非疑问两种用法。该研究从how的非疑问用法出发,通过分析英语国家语料库及牛津高阶词典(第六版)中的相关例证,探讨了其在共时层面的语法化现象及相关可能的认知机制。研究发现,how的非疑问用法是语义、语用和句法等多重因素相互作用的结果,是经由语法化而不断演变形成的。在此过程中,它的疑问义逐渐减少,直至虚化为表连接说明、否定、虚指、任指等义,此过程涉及到的认知机制主要有主观化和重新分析两个方面。
English interrogative adverb how has both interrogative and non-interrogative usages. Through the analyses of some il-lustrations in the British National Corpus and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary(the 6th edition), the study has explored how’s grammaticalization and relative cognitive mechanisms from the synchronic perspective and its non-in-terrogative usages. The study has found that how’s non-interrogative usages are formed by the semantic, pragmatic and syntactic effects and its grammaticalization. In this process, how’s interrogative meaning is decreasing and it expresses the meaning of de-scription, objection, subjunctive reference and general reference. And the main cognitive mechanisms in this process are subjectiv-isation and reanalysis.