李舰君 陈艳红 杨传鸣
(1.东北农业大学,黑龙江 哈尔滨 150030;2.黑龙江八一农垦大学,黑龙江 大庆 161139)
随着知识经济和国际化进程的深入发展,高质量科技论文英文摘要的撰写受到国内学者的高度重视。英文摘要是科技论文的重要组成部分,是科技论文内容的高度浓缩,涵盖了科技论文的基本要素,具有强大的信息性。正是由于英文摘要具备独立性强、信息密度高、语言精练等特点,国外学者可通过对英文摘要的检索获取当前中文科技论文的信息,这大大提高了科技论文的检索效率和利用率;同时,国际检索机构(SCI,EI,ISTP)也都将英文摘要的撰写是否符合检索要求作为其收录的一个重要指标。
国内期刊多数为中文期刊,要让国内中文期刊中的文献被国外学者认可,被国际检索机构收录,更好参与国际学术交流和扩大国际影响力,最直接、高效的媒介就是通过英文摘要。当前,很多国内学者科技论文的学术水平和质量很高,却难以进入国际检索机构,究其原因可能“在于其科技论文英文摘要的撰写不符合国际检索机构的收录要求”[1]。因此,国内学者应该认真研究符合国际检索机构收录要求的英文摘要撰写方法,重视英文摘要的规范化撰写。
语篇是指“一个任何长度的、语义完整的口语或书面语的段落”[2]。语篇的形式多样、丰富,可以是口头的或书面的、散文或诗歌、对话或独白。从一个词、一个词组、一个句子到一个句群、一个段落、一篇文章,甚至从瞬间的一句简单求救到一整天的会议讨论都可以是一个语篇。语篇表达的是意义而不是形式,是语言的语义单位,与词语、句子的性质不同。语篇与句子之间的区别并不表现为大小关系而是体现关系,不是由句子组成,而是体现句子。
衔接是一个语义概念,是指形成语篇的意义关系,当在语篇中某个成分的解释需要依赖对另外一个成分的解释时,衔接便应运而生。衔接是“语篇内标记不同句际关系的形式连接,是使作者或说话人建立跨越句子边界的关系,并使篇章内的句子扭结在一起的语篇建构手段”[3]。连贯是指文章的词、句子、句群、段落在概念上、逻辑上是合理的,是一个整体而不是词和句子简单的堆积。它是一个完整语篇内部深层意义的关联,主要体现在语篇的深层结构上。
当前,有不少学者认为,表面上看似衔接的语篇本质上未必连贯,而连贯的语篇也未必体现在衔接手段上,但很多语篇实例和相关研究表明,衔接和连贯密不可分,语篇的衔接手段对于语篇的连贯起着重要作用。只有衔接手段而没有连贯特征的语言不能称之为语篇;没有衔接手段而只有连贯特征的语篇阅读时也令人费解。因此,衔接和连贯是相互依存的,衔接手段可以使表意更加明确,逻辑更加清晰,语篇更加连贯,结构更加严谨和流畅。
Halliday&Hasan于1976年出版专著Cohesion in English,标志着衔接理论的创立。Crewe对香港大学英语学习者英文写作中逻辑衔接词的多用与少用进行分析,研究发现英语学习者对衔接词的使用比较混乱,逻辑不清晰[4]。Granger&Tyson采用语料库的方法,对比法国高级学习者和英语本族语者的英文写作,发现法国高级学习者倾向过多使用增补型衔接词,过少使用对比型衔接词[5]。
国内对于语篇衔接的研究相对较晚。胡壮麟于1994年发表专著《语篇的衔接与连贯》[6],对衔接和连贯做了详尽阐述。此后,很多学者对语篇衔接手段的研究逐渐深入。近几年来,国内一些学者对学术论文英文摘要的语篇衔接手段进行了研究。李平用主位推进理论对学术期刊英文摘要的语篇组织模式进行分析,发现英文摘要多由5~7句组成,分布上有所侧重,语篇组织呈现出较为清晰的主位推进模式等特点[7]。国防从语篇的角度对两篇中英作者的学术论文英文摘要进行对比分析,讨论了如何以语篇结构、衔接、连贯及句际关系为切入点,简明、准确、规范地完成摘要写作,归纳总结了学术论文英文摘要的一般原则和方法[8]。
总结国内外学者对语篇衔接理论的研究,不难发现当前学者多从定性角度研究语篇衔接手段的应用,缺乏对语篇衔接手段的实证研究,不乏存在一定的主观臆断,语篇衔接理论的定义和分类亦缺乏系统性。
本研究以Halliday(1976)的语篇衔接理论为基础,通过建立国际期刊科技论文英文摘要语料库,采用语料库研究方法等分析当前国际期刊科技论文英文摘要中语篇衔接手段的方式与特点,从而提高国内学者撰写科技论文英文摘要的写作水平,使得学术论文符合国际刊物的投稿标准。
通过总结分析当前学者的研究,为使研究结果更具科学性、客观性,本研究选取影响因子较高的几本国际期刊(例如:American Journal of Agricultual Economics,SCI影响因子近五年为1.607)的英文摘要100篇,建立国际期刊学术论文英文摘要语料库,共计18978词,本研究所有例句均来自此语料库,语料来源真实,因此研究方法更具创新性。
本文参考国内外学者对于语篇衔接手段的分类,最终采用Halliday&Hasan(1976)对语篇衔接手段的分类,将衔接手段分为指称、替代、省略、连接和词汇衔接,进而分析如何通过使用这些衔接手段使科技论文的英文摘要更具连贯性。
指称表示的是语义关系,通过代词等语法关系来体现。它不受制于严格的语法条件,其指称项不必与其所指的项目属于同一语法类别。Halliday&Hasan依据指称成分的不同,将之分为三类:人称指称(Personal Reference)、指示指称(Demonstrative Reference)和比较指称(Comparative Reference)。
1.人称指称:
(1)After a 10%increase in agro-manufactured export prices,I find that:(a)the employment probability would increase by 1.36 percentage points,matched by a decline in the unemployment probability of 0.75 percentage points and an increase in labor market participation of 0.61 percentage points.
(2)We conducted surveys on 33 trails within National Forests in Colorado and Montana to test whether forest fires affected recreation demand.
(3)This allows us to study the impacts of ageing on consumption and harvesting decisions as well as to see how the impact of taxes changes among different age groups of forest-owners.
(4)Our analysis of these two cases and various CO2e price levels indicate different responses in carbon stock and flux,forest land area and management,forest product prices,and forest conditions.
(5)However,as with all empirical tests of this hypothesis conducted to date,ours focus only on the demand side of the hypothesis.
例1至例5中,第一人称代词“I/we/us/our/ours”在语篇中主要指称的对象是作者本人(其中作者可以是一位或多位)。当第一人称代词做主语时,后面常见的动词或动词短语有adopt,apply,believe,conduct,consider,compare,develop,employ,estimate,evaluate,find,focus on,identify,investigate,illustrate,modify,present,provide,report,show,solve,study,use等;后面长接的名词有analysis,application,article,benefits,results,study等。
因此,在撰写科技论文的英文摘要时,恰当使用第一人称代词,不仅可以帮助国内学者提高自身撰写英文摘要的水平,同时也可以帮助我们改变对于科技论文英文摘要中第一人称代词使用的错误看法。巧妙的使用第一人称代词,能够更好更客观地展示学术成果,也能够更快提升作者的知名度及学术成果的影响力。
2.指示指称:
(6)The approach aims to determine the optimal stock of each species to be maintained in the stand conditional on the observed stand state and timber prices,whereas thinning in density is given by the difference between the existing and the optimal stocks.
(7)This paper provides panel data evidence on the question of how forest endowment and economic activity affect net exports of industrial round wood and forest products.
(8)These results demonstrate the importance of estimating public values for forest protection in terms of heterogeneous groups rather than as a homogeneous whole.
例6至例8中,作者通过“the”加名词或是“this/that”加名词来叙述作者当下的研究,例如“the approach/article/study”或“this approach/argument/article/study”或“these approaches/data/experiments/findings/measures/observations/results”等。其实,作者在使用第一人称代词和指示指称表达当下研究时,从语义的角度讲是相似的,比如“the article investigates”等于“I investigate”,“this study advances”等于“I advance”等。作者在撰写科技论文的英文摘要时使用指示指称,主要是为了避免用第一人称代词称呼自己而已。
因此,作者在撰写科技论文的英文摘要时,无论使用第一人称代词还是指示指称,都可以表达当下论文所研究的目的、意义、学术成果等。
3.比较指称:
(9)Further analysis indicated that consumptive forest users(i.e.,hunters and anglers)held forest protection values that were sensitive to a change forest condition,while non-consumptive forest users(i.e.,campers and hikers)held values that were insensitive to the same condition change.
例9中,两类不同用户对森林保护的态度是不同的,两个分句不仅可以由“while”进行衔接,而且可以由表示相同关系的衔接词“same”进行衔接,从而达到更好的对比效果。
替代是指语篇中一个项目由另外一个项目所替代的过程,是一种语法关系不是语义关系。例如:
(10)We use two experimental valuation methods to estimate consumer demand for genetically modified golden rice.The first one is an open-ended choice experiment(OECE)where participants name the quantities of golden rice and conventional rice demanded at each of several price combinations,one of which will be randomly chosen as binding.
(11)In general,we find that tax effects are dependent on the forest-owner’s age.Age tends to intensify the increasing effect of the forest bequest tax on harvesting.The same is true with respect to the decreasing effect on harvesting of the inheritance tax imposed on non-forest assets.
(12)Results indicate that Montana hikers have lower net benefits($12/trip)than Colorado visitors do($55/trip).
例10中,“one”代替了上句所提到的“experimental valuation method”。例11中,“the same”翻译成“同样的(道理)”代替前一句里所表达的涵义。例12中,“do”代替前半句中的动词“have”。这三个例子中所使用的替代,紧密联系上下文的语境,用一个成分解释另一个成分,从而避免了句子中某个成分的重复,使得句子清晰、明了、有机的结合在一起,形成一个紧密的语篇。
省略是指语篇中的某个部分的缺省或省略,虽未说出,但仍可被读者所理解。例如:
(13)The model permitted to estimate in monetary terms two possible costs to be supported:the first is expressed as the expected damage to the forest crop on the basis of the current obtainable woody assortments and the second referred to the potential expenses to pay in order to mitigate the risk.Finally,the framework was tested on an area of central Italy(Tuscany region).
(14)We modify the usual practice of obtaining a single willingness-to-pay(WTP)value by using alternative questionnaire scenarios and conducting tests to examine i)household and recreation group value sensitivity to forest condition,and ii)recreation group differences in WTP for forest protection.A first sample of southeastern U.S.households was asked to value a forest protection program for a spruce-fir forest showing no impact from insect disturbance or atmospheric deposition.The second was asked to value a protection program for a forest already experiencing impact from insect infestation and air pollution.
例13中,第一句中的宾语为“two possible costs”,后面紧接冒号,表示后面的语句为解释、说明,因此冒号后的“the first”和“the second”分别代表“the first cost”和“the second cost”,虽然作者没有明确表述,读者依然可以理解其意思,同时使得整个语篇简洁、清晰。例14中,倒数第二句的开头为“A first sample of southeastern U.S.households”,因此“the second”相当于“the second sample of southeastern U.S.households”。从语法角度讲,撰写句子时应当将句子表述完整,使意思明确,但在具体语境中,“sample of southeastern U.S.households”的涵义非常清晰,为了避免重复,不需要再次提出,从而使文章简洁、明了。
连接是指通过过渡性的词语(连接词)体现句子之间的连接关系,即通过显性的连接词使语篇的各个部分有机连接在一起。Halliday&Hasan依据连接所表示的不同语义关系,将之分为四类:增补关系(Additive)、转折关系(Adversative)、因果关系(Causal)和时间关系(Temporal)。
1.增补关系。增补关系又分为四种类型,即简单增补、强调的复合体、同位语(关系)和对比。例如:
(15)This paper provides panel data evidence on the question of how forest endowment and economic activity affect net exports of industrial round wood and forest products.
(16)The finding of abnormal returns revealed that all six events generated the expected positive or negative returns,and among them,four were statistically significant.
(17)In addition,wastepaper demand has also become more sensitive to changes in energy prices,and its use increases with increases in the price of energy.
(18)In particular,the industries using sawlogs would need to get back to the high levels of production seen a few years ago.For instance,policies leading to the increased use of wood in construction would support the renewable energy goals as well.
(19)On the other hand,net exports do have an impact on timber production.While historical differences in forest industries and resources still exist between developed countries the role of forest resources is becoming less important in shaping the development of forest industries in these countries.
例15和16中,“and”和“or”属于简单增补,表示并列的涵义,例15中“and”前后的“endowment”和“economic activity”共同作为从句的主语,进而共同影响从句的宾语;例16中“or”前后的“positive”和“negative”是选择关系,充当“returns”的定语,从而使得研究结果在语言表述方面更加完整。例17属于强调的复合体,“in addition”(此外)强调它后面的句子为作者所表述的另外一个分论点,与前面所提到的分论点形成一种平行关系,从而使语篇结构更加清晰、明了。例18属于同位语(关系),“for instance”为举例说明,是对前面句子的解释说明,从而将前后语句连接在一起。例19属于对比,“on the other hand”(另一方面)的预设为“on one hand”(一方面),即作者所表述的某一观点有两个分论点,在行文中,也许作者并没有用显性的连接“on one hand”(一方面)来表述以第一个分论点,但当出现“on the other hand”(另一方面),即第二个分论点时,就已经预设了第一个分论点的存在,从而将两个分论点有机的连接在一起,进而共同支撑作者所表述的观点。
2.转折关系。转折关系分为四种类型:“正”转折、对比、修正和删除。例如:
(20)Results suggest that as the meat packing industry’s share of a county’s total employment and wage bill rises,total employment growth increases.However,employment growth in other sectors slows,as does local wage growth.Industry growth has little impact on local crime rates or on growth of government spending on education,health,or police protection.
(21)Much agricultural economics research has been dedicated to determining the best time for producers to sell their commodities.Unlike this past research,we look at how producers actually sell commodities.
(22)Our results imply that a single market does not exist across the entire U.S.South.Instead,these regions may form a few contiguous market segments.
例20属于“正”转折,“however”强调第一句话和第二句话中的“employment growth”在不同条件下表现出相反的特点。例21属于对比,“actually”与句首的“unlike this past research”相互呼应,对比前一句的表述和过去“producers”的状态。例22属于修正,“instead”的前一句是对当前一种状态的否认,“instead”则是对当前这种状态的修正。无论“正”转折、对比、修正还是删除,都是通过否定、比较等连接词将语篇中的句子有机的联系在一起。
3.因果关系。因果关系分为四种类型:概括因果关系、具体因果关系、概括倒置因果关系和方面关系。例如:
(23)Although intensive managed plantations clearly increase the growth and yield of forests several papers refer to declining forest productivity.Therefore in this paper we study the impact of declining forest productivity on the land expectation value and the optimal rotation length.
(24)We show that market power may reduce or eliminate entirely the net welfare benefits from removing two traditional support mechanisms,price floors and deficiency payments,and may increase considerably the government’s cost of implementing either of them.Accordingly,optimally designed price support measures may improve welfare in the presence of downstream oligopoly and/or oligopoly power.
例23属于概括因果关系,“therefore”为正式用语,多用于笔语中,表示对第一句话所表述内容的逻辑结果,两个句子通过“therefore”彼此相连,形成完整的语篇。例24中的“accordingly”亦为正式用语,多用笔语,是对已经表述的观点提出新的方式或见解。
4.时间关系。时间关系分为四种类型:简单时间关系、复合时间关系、内部时间关系和“当时当地”关系。例如:
(25)Finally,the focus turns to a microeconomic perspective on agricultural household decision making and the problems of imperfect and missing markets,asymmetric information,and transactions costs that lead to widespread apparent inefficiency and disequilibrium.
(26)The results show that current consumption first decreases and then increases when moving from younger to older individuals regardless of whether nontimber assets are more or less heavily taxed through bequests than consumption.
(27)Impacts of exchange rates on international forest products trade are widely debated,but the empirical evidence regarding this issue is still incon-clusive.Here,we report findings of the impacts of the exchange rates on the main forest product imports and exports of the US,from January 1989 to November 2004.
例25属于简单时间关系,通过上半部分介绍科技论文中的一些情况,“最终”使用“finally”表述论文的重点及目的。例26属于内部时间关系,上半句话表述了当前的状态,“then”则用来表述对上半句话的延续。例17属于“当时当地”关系,表明作者当前论文的主要研究对象、研究目的及研究成果。
词汇衔接是指在语篇中通过选择词汇建立一个可以贯穿语篇的链条,从而使语篇连贯。
(28)This paper analyzes the effects of resin benefit on the optimal rotation age of Simao pine plantation.Timber growth and resin yield functions were first derived,and then an integrated formulation for Hartman rotation was solved by taking both timber and resin benefits into consideration through numerical optimization.Empirical results indicate that:(1)the inclusion of resin benefit results in lengthening optimal rotation age;(2)resin benefit has a greater effect on rotation age when discount rate is lower than when it is high,ceteris paribus;(3)with an improvement of site productivity,resin benefit has a decreasing effect on rotation age,other factors being constant.These effects are also true with respect to benefit gains in present value.
例28 中,“effect”“resin benefit”“rotation age”在整个语篇中反复出现,充当整个科技论文英文摘要的关键词,强调了作者意欲表达的主题,从而起到衔接作用;“optimal”和“optimization”虽然形式不同,但意思相同,将上下文有机连接;“Simao pine”和“timber”形成上下义关系,“timber”是“Simao pine”的上义词,分别出现在第一句话和第二句话中,从而将两个句子连接在一起;“lower”和“high”形成反义关系、“lengthening”和“greater”虽然词性、拼写不同,但意思上相近,从而形成近义关系,同时与“decreasing”形成反义关系,作者通过同义关系和反义关系将实验的三个结果有机串联,衔接统一;“other factors”和上半句的“with an improvement of site productivity”形成互补同现,不但充实了研究发现,而且将两个分句紧密衔接,语言阐述更加完整。
语篇衔接手段的应用可以使国际期刊的英文摘要更加简洁,逻辑性更强。本研究通过建立国际期刊学术论文英文摘要语料库,从指称、替代、省略、连接和词汇衔接角度分析与归纳国际期刊英文摘要语篇衔接手段的特点,有利于国内学者提高撰写学术论文英文摘要的写作能力。
本研究仅选取了100篇学术论文的英文摘要,共计18978词,今后的研究应该扩大语料选取,增强研究结果的适用性。其次,本研究仅选取了几本影响因子较高的国际期刊,今后的语料选取应该扩大国际期刊的类别,从而提高研究结果的可靠性。
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