程雨民的《语言系统及其运作》评介

Book review: Cheng Yumins Linguistic System and its Operation

本文介绍程雨民的新著《语言系统及其运作》。原书作者认为，语言系统是导向性的，而不是规定性的。语言研究必须和人的推理能力结合起来。书评作者认为，和以前的形式研究相比，认知语用的研究方法使我们看到了语言的一个新侧面。逻辑推理在语言运用中所起的作用可能要比以前认为的小。对这个问题的进一步探索将会使人们重新认识语言以至心智等问题。

This article is a book review of Cheng Yumins Linguistic System and its Operation. In the book under review, the author points out that linguistic system is not a set of discrete, prescriptive rules. The determination of meaning should be based on the language users cognitive ability. The reviewer argues that logical inferencing may not be a necessary requirement of linguistic processing. The cognitive pragmatic methodology opens an new era of linguistics and casts new light on the study of language and mind.