Сравнение китайских и английских речевых связок в устных повествованиях

Position of linkages in English and Chinese oral narratives

In the present research we have found that the position of the linkages of the English oral narratives is fixed, that is, all English linkages appear in the initial position of a clause: the initial position of a coordinate clause or a subordinate clause. So, linkages in English oral narratives can be classified into inter-clausal linkages and intra-clausal linkages.

Inter-clausal linkages are those which can link two or more clauses which are “constituents at the same level of constituent structure” (Quirk et al 1985: 918). And they are used between two or more independent clauses to link them together. Typical inter-clausal linkages in English include coordinators like and, but and or, and conjunct adverbs like then, so, yet and however. Preposition-phrasal linkages like by that time, about the time, and for some reason are also inter-clausal linkages.

Intra-clausal linkages are those which can introduce a subordinate clause to a superodinate clause (Quirk et al 1985: 918), that is, they demonstrate the clausal relation within a complex sentence. Typical intra-clausal linkages in English include subordinators like after, before, as, when, where, though/although, because, since, etc., and relative pronouns and adverbs like which, that, who, whom, where, when, etc.

Contrary to the English linkages, the Chinese linkages can take a flexible position in a clause, namely clause-initial, -middle, and -final positions. Some linkages can only take the the clause-final position, for example, ...的时候 ...de shíhòu (when), 以后 yǐhòu (later; after), 之后 zhīhòu (later; after), etc., as shown in examples (3), (4), and (22). And other linkages can be positioned either in the cluase-initial position or after the topic/subject. In Text 15 the narrator uses the linkage 这/那（个）时候 zhè/nà (gè)shíhòu ((at) this/that moment) 10 times. Some are in the clause-initial position, and some are in the clause-middle position. For example,

(5) 这时候，这个骑车的小孩子呢，呀，就把......呀，就......呀，很感谢他把帽子拿回来。
Zhè shíhòu, zhègè qíchē de xiǎoháizi ne, ya, jiù bǎ...ya, jiù ...ya, hěn gǎnxiè tā bǎ màozi ná huílái.
At this moment, the child riding a bike, oh, then ... oh, thanks him for bringing the hat back.

(6) 这个农人呢，这个时候也下来了。
Zhègè nóngrén ne, zhègè shíhòu yě xiàlái.
The farmer climbs down at the moment.

So linkages in Chinese oral narratives can be classified into two groups: linkages in clause-final position and linkages in non-clause-final position. Among the linkages cited in the 20 Chinese oral narratives only two clause-final linkages: ...的时候 ...de shíhòu (when) and 以/之后 yǐ/zhīhòu (after), and the majority are non-clause-final linkages.