人称指示视点的选择及其语用原则

Points of view in personal deixis and its pragmatic principles

人称指示就是通过公开或隐含的人称代词把话语中涉及的人或物与说话者、听话者或第三者联系起来,表明彼此间的关系。不同的人称代词代表不同的视点。通过研究说话者在听话者面前指称第三者时选择视点的情况,本文发现,人称视点的选择至少受两条语用原则的支配:亲疏原则和地位原则。亲疏原则即根据关系的亲疏决定视点的选择,说话者一般选择语境里与第三者关系最亲密的人的视点;地位原则的根据地位的高低决定视点的选择,说话者在地位比听话者低时,一般选择第一人称视点,在地位比听话者高时,一般选择第二人称视点。此外,人称视点的选择还受到文化传统、说话动机、话语照应等因素的影响,出现违背以上两条语用原则的情况。文章最后提出,地位原则起源于“幼儿话”或“母亲语”。

In this paper personal deixis is defined as the relationship the speaker establishes between what he refers to and a certain another person through the use of an overt or covert personal pronoun. Different personal pronouns represent different points of view. Focusing on the point of view the speaker adopts in referring to a third person, this paper discovers that the speaker's point of view is governed by at least two pragmatic principles - the principle of proximity and the principle of status. The principle of proximity requires that the speaker adopt the point of view of the person in the speech situation who has the closest relationship with the referred person; the principle of status requires that the speaker adopt his own point of view when he is in a lower position than the addressee and that he adopt the addressee's point of view when he is in a higher position than the addressee. The paper notes that the choice of point of view is affected by other factors as well, such as cultural tradition, the speaker's motivation and discourse cohesion. At the end of the paper it is proposed that the principle of status has its origin in 'baby talk' or 'motherese'.