认知语用学——认知原则和交际原则

Relevance of an input=(Positive) Cognitive effect Processing effort
• Maximize the relevance of the inputs one processes is simply a matter of making the most efficient use of the available processing resources. • Relevance Theory claims that humans do have an automatic tendency to maximize relevance, because of the way our cognitive systems have evolved.
Human cognition tends to be geared to the maximization of relevance.
Every act of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its own optimal relevance.
• 按照 S & W 的理论 , 语境效果指新信息与旧信息相互作 用产生的语境含意 , 即在交际中对已有认知语境的改变 , 产生新的认知语境 。一般说来 , 相关的信息会取得一定的 交际效果 , 但她们将语境效果看作是 “相关”的必要条 件 , 即只有取得一定语境效果的信息才是相关的 。 • What sort of things may be relevant? • When is an input relevant?
Cognitive principle
• According to Sperber & Wilson, an assumption is relevant in a context if and only if it has some contextual effects in that context.
Grounded in the Cognitive Principle of Relevance
• The Cognitive Principle of Relevance represents Sperber & Wilson’s basic assumption about human cognition. Sperber & Wilson argue that offers of information automatically raise expectations of relevance. • More precisely, any utterance or other act of overt communication creates a presumption that it will be relevant enough to be worth the audience’s attention or, in Sperber & Wilson’s terms, “optimally relevant”. This idea is expressed in the communicative principle of relevance.
positive cognitive effect
• Sperber & Wilson define it as a cognitive effect that contributes positively to the fulfillment of cognitive functions or goals, to be more specific, it’s a kind of epistemic improvement. • An increase in knowledge
• In Relevance-Theoretic terms, an input is relevant to an individual when, and only when, its processing in a context of available assumptions yields a positive cognitive effect.
Fra Baidu bibliotek
• As a result of constant selection pressure towards increasing efficiency, the human cognitive system has developed in such a way that our perceptual mechanisms tend automatically to pick out potentially relevant stimuli, our memory retrieval mechanisms tend automatically to activate potentially relevant assumptions, and our inferential mechanisms tend spontaneously to process them in the most productive way. • 橘子
What sort of things may be relevant?
• Intuitively, relevance is a potential property not only of utterances and other observable phenomena, but also, of thoughts, memories and conclusions of inferences. • According to Relevance Theory, utterances raise expectations of relevance not because speakers are expected to obey a Co-operative Principle and maxims or some other specifically communicative conventions, but because the search for relevance is a basic feature of human cognition, which communicators may exploit.
• Relevance is a matter of degree • Comparative rather quantitative • Relevance Theory claims that what makes an input worth picking out from the mass of competing stimuli is not just that it is relevant, but that it is more relevant than any alternative input available to people involved at that time. • Relevance=Cognitive effect/Processing effort (equal to relevance of an input to an individual)
When is an input relevant?
• In Relevance-Theoretic terms, any external stimulus or internal representation that provides an input to cognitive processes may be relevant to an individual at some time. • Intuitively, an input, which can be a sight, a sound, an utterance, a memory, is relevant to an individual when it connects with background information he has available to yield conclusions that matter to him: say, by answering a question he had in mind, improving his knowledge on a certain topic, settling a doubt, confirming a suspicion, or correcting a mistaken impression.
Two Principles of Relevance
More fundamental and general, Relevance Theory is cognitive basedbehavior on two make the of fundamental claims, one about cognition, the other about another human predictable enough to guide communication. communication. (Sperber&Wilson,1995:260)
Relevance of an input=(Positive) Cognitive effect Processing effort
• A. The next plane to Bosten is at 5:30. B. The next plane to Bosten is sometime after 4:00. C. The next plane to Bosten leaves 7,500 seconds after 3:25. A-B cognitive effect A-C processing effort When similar amounts of effort are required, the effect factor is decisive in determining degrees of relevance, and when similar amounts of effect are available, the effort factor is decisive.
Relevance=Cognitive effects/Processing effort
• Cognitive effects: result from an interaction of new and old information • Processing effort • Newly presented information may: a. combine with an existing assumption to yield contextual implications b. strengthen existing assumptions c. contradict and eliminate existing assumptions • S & W 认为新的信息和现有认知语境具有三种关联方式 , 因而产生三 种语境效果 : • 1. 新信息与语境相互作用产生语境效果 ; 2. 新信息提供进一步的证据以加强已有语境 ; 3. 新信息与已有语境相矛盾因而放弃原有假设 。 老王和小赵出差回来了吗？
Communicative principle
• The universal cognitive tendency to maximize relevance-----to predict and manipulate the mental states of others. • Knowing of human beings’ tendency to pick out the most relevant stimuli in their environment and process so as to maximize their relevance, a communicator may be able to produce a stimulus which is likely to attract someone else’s attention, to prompt the retrieval of certain contextual assumptions and to point him towards an intended conclusion.（对彼此有一定的了解）