hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2025-07-25

■ #5933. 等位接続詞 but の「逆接」 [adversative][conjunction][semantics][pragmatics][presupposition][negative][negation][oximoron][but]

　日本語の「しかし」然り，英語の but 然り，逆接の接続詞 ((adversative) conjunction) と呼ばれるが，そもそも逆接とは何だろうか．今回は英語の but を用いた表現に注目するが，例えば A but B とあるとき，A と B の関係が逆接であるとは，何を意味するのだろうか．
　最も単純に考えれば，A と B が意味論的に反意の場合に，その関係は逆接といえるかもしれない．しかし，意味論的に厳密に反意の場合には，but を仲立ちとして組み合わされた表現は，逆接というよりは矛盾，あるいは撞着語法 (oxymoron) となってしまう．She is rich but poor. のような例だ．
　したがって，多くの場合，but による逆接の表現は，意味論的に厳密な反意というよりも語用論的なズレというべきなのかもしれない．A を理解するために必要な前提 (presupposition) が B では通用しないとき，換言すれば A から期待されることが B で成立しないとき，語用論的な観点から，それを逆接関係とみなす傾向があるのではないか．
　この辺りの問題をつらつらと考えていたが，埒が明かなそうなので，Quirk et al. （§13.32）に当たってみた．

The use of but 13.32
But expresses a contrast which could usually be alternatively expressed by and followed by yet. The contrast may be in the unexpectedness of what is said in the second conjoin in view of the content of the first conjoin:

   John is poor, but he is happy. ['. . . and yet he is happy']

This sentence implies that his happiness is unexpected in view of his poverty. The unexpectedness depends on our presuppositions and our experience of the world. It would be reasonable to say:

   John is rich, but he is happy.

if we considered wealth a source of misery.
   The contrast expressed by but may also be a repudiation in positive terms of what has been said or implied by negation in the first conjoin (cf 13.42):

   Jane did not waste her time before the exam, but studied hard every evening. [1]

In such cases the force of but can be emphasized by the conjunct rather or on the contrary (cf 8.137):

   I am not objecting to his morals, but rather to his manners. [2]

With this meaning, but normally does not link two clauses, but two smaller constituents; for example, the conjoins are two predicates in [1] and two prepositional phrases in [2]. The conjoins cannot be regarded as formed simply by ellipsis from two full clauses, since the not in the first clause conjoin is repudiated in the second. Thus the expansion of [2] into two full clauses must be as follows:

   I am not objecting to his morals, but (rather) I am objecting to his manners.

　この節を読み，not A but B の表現においてなぜ but が用いられるかの理屈が少し分かってきた．A は否定的で，B は肯定的であるという，極性が反対向きであることを逆接の接続時 but が表わしている，ということなのだろう．

　・ Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman, 1985.

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