Zipf与省力原则

Zipf and the Principle of Least Effort

本文首先介绍Zipf的生平及以其名字命名的定律,然后讨论了省力原则与Zipf定律的关系:即,省力原则是单一化力量跟多样化力量之间的妥协,Zipf定律是省力原则的体现。并指出,省力原则与语言冗余现象不矛盾。在后半部分,我们讨论了省力原则与语用学的关系。Grice(1978)曾提出修订版奥卡姆剃刀(Occam’sRazor),这跟省力原则有明显的联系。Horn(1984)则进一步把Zipf的省力原则跟Grice的准则结合起来,提出了Q原则和R原则。Sperber和Wilson(1986/1995)的关联原则也谈到了省力问题,但他们的理论的解释力不如Horn的两原则大。最后,我们通过具体讨论如何理解anX,论证了我们的论点。

We trace the Principle of Least Effort to Zipf and his law on the relation between the rank of a word and its frequency first. Then we move on to his arguments about the Principle as a compromise between the Force of Unification and the Force of Diversification. We also introduce similar views advanced by Martinet, making clear that the Principle of Least Effort is in no way contradictory to redundancy in language.In the latter part, we concentrate on the relation between the Principle of Least Effort and pragmatics theories. Grice (1978) proposes a modified Occam's Razor, which clearly shows the connection between his theory and that of Zipf's. Horn (1984) combines the Principle of Least Effort with Grice's conversational maxims, and argues for a two-principle model: the hearer-based Q-principle and the speaker-based R-principle. In a sense, relevance theory originated with Sperber and Wilson (1986/1995) is also concerned with the Principle of Least Effort, who talk about the achievement of greater effect at the cost of less effort. Nevertheless, we believe that Horn's Q- and R-principles are a better account of language use than the Principle of Relevance. To substantiate this view, we discuss in some detail the interpretation of “an X' in terms of Q- and R-principles at the end.