语言学Chapter Eight Pragmatics.docx
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语言学Chapter Eight Pragmatics.docx
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语言学ChapterEightPragmatics
ChapterEightPragmatics
Aims:
?
Toknowwhatispragmaticsanditsmainconcern;
?
Tohaveageneralideaaboutcontextandthenotionsofdeixis,referenceandanaphora;
?
TounderstandtheSpeechActtheory,theCooperativePrinciplesinConversationandPolitenessPrinciplesinConversation.
ⅠIntroduction
Pragmaticsisconcernedwiththeinterpretationoflinguisticmeaningincontext.Twokindsofcontextsarerelevant.Whenwereadorhearpiecesoflanguage,wenormallytrytounderstandnotonlywhatthewordsmean,butwhatthewriterorspeakerofthosewordsintendedtoconvey.Takealookatthefollowingdialogue:
1A:
Ihaveafourteen-year-oldson.
B:
Wellthat’sallright
A:
Ialsohaveadog.
B:
OhI’msorry.
Inmakingsenseofthequoteabove,itmayhelptoknowthatAistryingtorentanapartmentfromB.therealmeaningisbeyondtheliteralinterpretation.Itseemsthatpragmaticsisthestudyof‘invisible’meaning,orhowwerecognizewhatismeantevenwhenitisn’tactuallysaid/written.Inorderforthattohappen,speakers/writersmustbeabletodependonalotofsharedassumptionsandexpectations.Theinvestigationofthoseassumptionsandexpectationsprovidesuswithsomeinsightsintohowmoregetscommunicatedthanissaid.
ⅡContext
Itcanbeseenfromtheabovediscussionthatcontextplaysaveryimportroleinmakingsenseofutteranceswehear.Therearedifferentkindsofcontexttobeconsidered.Onekindisbestdescribedaslinguisticcontext,alsoknownasco-text.Thecontextofawordisthesetofotherwordsusedinthesamephraseorsentence.Forexample,thewordbankisahomonym,aformwithmorethanonemeaning.Howdoweusuallyknowwhichmeaningisintendedinaparticularsentence?
Weusuallydosoonthebasisoflinguisticcontext.Ifthewordbankisusedinasentencetogetherwithwordslikesteeporovergrown,wehavenoproblemdecidingwhichtypeof‘bank’ismeant.Inasimilarway,whenwehearsomeonesaythatshehastogettothebanktocashacheck,weknowfromthelinguisticcontextwhichtypeof‘bank’isintended.
Moregenerally,weknowwhatwordsmeanonthebasisofanothertypeofcontext,bestdescribedasphysicalcontext.IfyouseethewordBANKonthewallofabuildinginacity,the‘physical’locationwillinfluenceyourinterpretation.Ourunderstandingismuchofwhatwereadandhearistiedtothephysicalcontext,particularlythetimeandplace,inwhichweencounterexpressions.
ⅢDeixis,reference,anaphora
1Deixis
Therearesomewordsinthelanguagethatcannotbeinterpretedatallunlessthephysicalcontext,especiallythephysicalcontextofthespeaker,isknown.Thesearewordslikehere,there,this,that,now,then,yesterday,aswellaspronouns,suchasI,you,him,her,them.SomesentencesofEnglisharevirtuallyimpossibletounderstandifwedon’tknowwhoisspeaking,aboutwhom,whereandwhen.Forexample:
You’llhavetobringthatbacktomorrow,becausetheyaren’therenow.
Outofcontext,thissentenceisextremelyvague.Itcontainsalargenumberofdeicticexpressionswhichwecanonlyunderstandintermsofspeaker’sintendedmeaning.OfGreekorigin,theworddeixismeans‘pointing’vialanguage.
Peoplecanactuallyusedeixistohavesomefun.ThebarownerwhoputsupabigsignthatreadsFreeBeerTomorrow(togetyoutoreturntohisbar)canalwaysclaimthatyouareonedaytooearlyforthefreedrink.
2Reference
Indiscussingdeixis,weassumedthattheuseofwordstorefertopeopleandthingswasasimplematter.However,wordsthemselvesdon’trefertoanything.Peoplerefer.Wehavetodefinereferenceasanactbywhichaspeaker/writeruseslanguagetoenablealistener/readertoidentifysomething.Aswementionedinthepreviouschapter,thewordsweusetoidentifythingsarenotinsomedirectrelationshiptothosethings.Forexample,ifyou’restudyinglinguistics,youmightasksomeoneCanIlookatyourChomsky?
AndgettheresponseSure,it’sontheshelfoverthethere.Thisexamplemakesitclearthatwecanusenamesassociatedwithpeopletorefertothings.Thekeyprocesshereiscalledinference.Aninferenceisanyadditionalinformationusedbythelistenertoconnectwhatissaidtowhatmustbemeant.SimilartypesofinferencesarenecessarytounderstandsomeonewhosaysthatPicassoisinthemuseumorWesawShakespeareinLondon.
3Anaphora
Whenweestablishareferent(CanIborrowyourbook?
)andsubsequentlyrefertothesameobject(Yeah,it’sonthetable),wehaveaparticularkindofreferentialrelationshipbetweenbookandit.Thesecond(andanysubsequent)referringexpressionisanexampleofanaphoraandthefirstmentioniscalledtheantecedent.Thus,bookistheantecedentanditistheanaphoricexpression.
Anaphoracanbedefinedassubsequentreferencetoanalreadyintroducedentity.Mostlyweuseanaphoraintextstomaintainreference.Aswithothertypesofreference,theconnectionbetweenreferentandanaphoramaynotalwaysbedirect.Considerthefollowingcomplaint:
Iwaswaitingforthebus,buthejustdrovebywithoutstopping.Noticethattheantecedentisbusandtheanaphoricexpressionishe.Wewouldnormallyexpectittobeusedforabus.Obviouslythereisaninferenceinvolvedhere:
ifsomeoneistalkingaboutabusinmotion,assumethatthereisadriver.Thatassumeddriveristheinferredreferentforhe.
ⅣSpeechActs
Wehavebeenconsideringsomewaysinwhichweinterpretthemeaningsofsentencesintermsofwhatthespeakerofthosesentencesintendedtoconvey.Whatwehavenotexploredisthefactthatwealsousuallyknowhowspeakersintendusto“take”whattheysay.Inverygeneralterms,wecanusuallyrecognizethetypeof‘act’performedbyspeakerinutteringasentence.Theuseofthetermspeechactcovers‘actions’suchas‘requesting’,‘commanding’,‘questioning’and‘informing’.Itistypicallythecasethatweusethefollowinglinguisticformswiththefollowing‘functions’.(theformswouldbedescribedinthesyntacticanalysisofalanguage,andthefunctionsaswhatpeopleuselanguagefor.)
FormsFunctions
Didyoueatthefood?
InterrogativeQuestion
Eatthefood(please)ImperativeCommand/request
YoueatthefoodDeclarativeStatement
WhenaformsuchasDidhe…?
Arethey…?
isusedtoaskaquestion,itisdescribedasadirectspeechact.Forexample,whenaspeakerdoesn’tknowsomethingandasksthehearertoprovidetheinformation,heorshewilltypicallyproduceadirectspeechactofthefollowingtype:
Canyourideabicycle?
ButtheutteranceCanyoupassthesalt?
isdifferent.Inthisexample,youwouldnotusuallyunderstandtheutteranceasaquestionaboutyourabilitytodosomething.Infact,youwouldnottreatitasaquestionatall.Youwouldtreatitasarequestandperformtheactionrequested.Yet,thisrequesthasbeenpresentedinthesyntacticformusuallyassociatedwithaquestion.Suchanexampleisdescribedasanindirectspeechact.Wheneveroneoftheformsinthesetaboveisusedtoperformafunctionotherthantheonelistedbesideit(onthesameline),theresultisanindirectspeechact.Thefollowingutterancehastheformnormallyassociatedwithastatement:
Youleftthedooropen.Ifyousaythissentencetosomeonewhohasjustcomeintoyourroom(andit’sprettycoldoutside),youwouldprobablybeunderstoodtohavemadenotastatement,butarequest.Youarerequesting,indirectly,thatthepersonclosethedoor.
Itispossibletohavehumorouseffectsasaresultofonepersonfailingtorecognizeanotherperson’sindirectspeechact.Considerthefollowingscene.Avisitortoacity,carryinghisluggage,lookinglost,stopsapasser-by:
Visitor:
Excuseme,doyouknowwheretheAmbassadorHotelis?
Passer-by:
Ohsure,Iknowwhereitis.(andwalksaway)
Inthisscene,thevisitorusesaformwhichisnormallyassociatedwithaquestion(Doyouknow…?
)andthepasser-byanswersthatquestionliterally(Iknow..).Insteadofrespondingtotherequest,thepasser-byrepliestothequestion,treatinganindirectspeechactasifitisdirect.
Perhapsthecrucialdistinctionintheuseofthesetwotypesofspeechactsisbasedonthefactthatindirectcommandsorrequestsaresimplyconsideredgentlerormorepoliteinoursocietythandirectcommands.
ⅤTheCooperativeprincipleinConversations
Anunderlyingassumptioninmostconversationalexchangesseemstobethattheparticipantsare,infact,co-operatingwitheachother.Thisprinciple,togetherwithfourmaximswhichweexpectwillbeobeyed,wasfirstsetoutbyGrice(1975).Theco-operativeprincipleisstatedinthefollowingway:
“Makeourconversationalcontributionsuchasisrequired,atthestageatwhichitoccurs,bytheacceptedpurposeofdirectionofthetalkexchangeinwhichyouareengaged.”Supportingthisprinciplearethefourmaxims:
Quantity:
Makeyourcontributionasinformativeasisrequired,butnotmore,orless,thanisrequired
Quality:
Donotsaythatwhichyoubelievetobefalseorforwhichyoulackevidence.
Relation:
Berelevant
Manner:
Beclear,briefandorderly
Itiscertainlytruethat,onoccasion,wecanexperienceconversationalexchangesinwhichtheco-operativeprincipledoesnotseemtobeinoperation.However,thisgeneraldescriptionofthenormalexpectationswehaveinconversationshelpstoexplainanumberofcommonexpressionslikeWell,tomakealongstoryshortandIwon’tboreyouwithallthedetailsseemtobeindicatorsofanawarenessoftheQuantitymaxim.SomeawarenessoftheimportanceoftheQualitymaximseemstoliebehindthewaywebeginsomeconversationalcontributionswithexpressio
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