语言学教程第8章

第八章：Relevance theory有点小问题1)the speech act theory (言语行为理论) p186It originated with the British philosopher John Austin in the late 1950’s. It is a philosophical explanation of the nature of linguistic communication. According to this theory, we are performing various kinds of acts when we are speaking.2)performatives (施为句) p186Austin classifies sentences in two categories: Performatives and Constatives. Performatives do not describe things. They cannot be said to be true or false. Uttering them is, or is a part of, doing an action.e.g. I name this ship Queen Elizabeth.I apologize.3)constatives （叙事句）p187Constatives are descriptive statements, capable of being analyzed in terms of truth-values, utterances which roughly serves to state a fact, report that something is the case, or describe what something is.E.g. I pour some liquid into the tube.(This is a sentence said by achemistry teacher in a demonstration of an experiment. It is a description of what the speaker is doing at the time of speaking. The speaker cannot pour any liquid into a tube by simply uttering these worlds. He must accompany his words with the actual pouring.Otherwise one can accuse him of making a false statement.)4)locutionary act （发话行为）p188utterance meaning (the movement of muscles)The act of producing speech sounds, words or sentences.(According to Austin, there are three senses in which saying something may be understood as doing something, one of them is ) locutionary act, which is the act of producing speech sounds, words or sentences or the act of saying something in the full sense of “say”.5)illocutionary act （行事行为）p189speaker’s meaning (intention)(the other sense is illocutionary act which means) the act of making known the speaker’s purpose or the intended meaning: asking or answering a question, giving some information or an assurance or a warning, pronouncing sentence, making a request or an appointment or a criticism, making identification or giving a description, and many others.6)perlocutionary act （取效行为）p189contextual meaning (results)(the third sense is) perlocutionary act which means the consequential effect of a locution upon the hearer. By saying something the speaker may change the opinion of the hearer, misleading him, surprising him, or inducing him to do something (the act preformed by or as a resultof saying, the effects on the hearer.).7)the cooperative principle （合作原则）p191This is the principle suggested by Grice about the regularity in conversation. According to Grice, in daily conversations, people are cooperative. They often recognize a common purpose or a set of purposes or at least a mutually agreed direction for the conversation to develop. That is, they follow a cooperative principle or CP for short.The cooperative principle has four categories of maxims: maxims of quality, maxims of quantity, maxims of relation, and maxims of manner.8)maxim of quantity （数量准则）Be economicalmake your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the exchange) but do not make your contribution more informative than is required.9)maxim of quality （质量准则）Be truthfuldo not say what you believe to be false and do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.10)maxim of relation （关系准则）Be relevant (what you say)11)maxim of manner （方式准则）Be clearBe perspicuous(清晰明白的). Avoid obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Be brief. And be orderly.12)calculability （可推导性or 可计算性）p195It is the first character of implicature. Implicature is calculable in that it can be worked out on the basis of previous information, including: 1) the conventional meaning of the words, 2) the CP and its maxims, 3) the context, 4) other items of the background knowledge, 5) the fact that all relevant items falling under the previous headings are available to both participants and both participants know or assume this to be the case. (Hearers work out implicature based on literal meaning, CP and its maxims, context, etc.)13)cancellability （可取消性）p196Also known as defeasibility（可废除性）. A conversational implicature relies on a number of factors: the conventional meaning of words used, the CP, the linguistic and situational contexts, etc. If any of them changes, the implicature will also change.14)non-detachability （不可分离性）p196A conversational implicature is attached to the semantic content ofwhat is said, not to the linguistic form. Therefore it is possible to use a synonym and keep the implicature intact. In other words, an implicature will not be detached, separated from the utterance as awhole, even though the specific words may be changed.15)non-conventionality （非常规性）p197Implicature is different from its conventional meaning of words. It is context-dependent. It is indeterminate and varies with context.Conversational implicature is by definition different from the conventional meaning of words.16)contextual meaning (语境意义)（perlocutionary act）meaning in context, meaning made in different situationsThe meaning of the sentence depends on who the speaker is, who the hearer is, when and where it is used.17)pragmatics (语用学)The study of language in use. The study of meaning in context. The study of speakers’ meaning, utterance meaning, & contextu al meaning.18) relevance theory （关联理论）p194Relevance theory was formally proposed by Sperber and Wilson in their book Relevance: Communication and Cognition in 1986. They argue that all Gricean maxims, including the CP itself should be reduced to a single principle of relevance, which is defined as:Every act of ostensive communication communicates the presumption of its optimal relevance.The assumption, or principle, underlying relevance theory is that in anygiven context, what people say is relevant. This principle of relevance can be seen as a further specification of the Gricean notion of cooperation. For relevance theory, achieving successful communication by way of the relevance of what is being said is a sufficient aim in conversation or other verbal interaction. RT is thus a minimalist theory of communication. Relevance is all we need.。