礼貌的关联论初探

A Relevance-theoretical Account of Politeness

礼貌是一个语用学及社会语言学共同探讨的传统课题,这方面的研究成果可谓汗牛充栋,其中大多数探讨与社会文化因素密不可分,很少或者缺乏等它和认知因素结合起来进行深入系统的探究,它究竟是一个社交问题还是认知问题?还是社交-认知交互作用的现象?还缺乏定论。从这些问题出发,本文首先回顾了Lakoff的礼貌观和礼貌规则,并提出不同礼貌规则之间是否存在优选问题;然后讨论了有关礼貌的多种论述,以旨重新审视什么是礼貌以及传统礼貌观可能面临的挑战;接着借助关联理论对礼貌展开了部分讨论,以旨说明礼貌是一种关联性期待,是理解的结果;最后以日常言语交际中寒暄语之类的应酬语为例,以旨指出寒暄语的目的就是通过建立、维护交际双方的认知环境,从而实现一定的社交目的。是否可以以及如何将礼貌的社交文化语用分析和认知分析结合起来,是本研究的一个基本出发点,认知效果和礼貌取得的社交语用效果之间是否存在排列顺序或优先问题?它们是否在本质上存在一致性?如何将这两种效果统一起来,建立一个既可以反映具有普遍意义的社交文化特征,又能够说明人类认知特点的、综合性的理论模式?这是本文最后提出的问题,以期与读者共同探讨,将礼貌的有关研究再推向深入。

Politeness is a traditionally focused topic of the study of social phenomena in pragmatics as well as in sociolinguistics about which there have appeared a large quantity of researches and discussions, and among which social-cultural factors are highly involved and consequentially cognitive consideration is seldom taken into account. However, some disagreements have been launched about whether politeness is social-cultural or cognitively oriented, or social-culturally and cognitively interactional. On such bases, the present study is therefore concentrated on the following aspects: it first surveys Lakoff's view about politeness and rules of politeness, so that it is wondered which rule might go first. Secondly, different views on politeness are touched upon, which helps to point out that the traditional one about politeness is likely to be challenged. Thirdly, it offers a relevance-theoretical account of politeness and holds that politeness is an result of interpretation and expectation. Fourthly, it offers an account of phatic utterances which aim at establishing and managing mutual cognitive environment and achieving certain communicative purposes. And it is finally proposed whether it is likely to establish a comprehensive model of politeness in which social-cultural and cognitive factors are both highly involved, and whether its social-cultural effects and cognitive effects are of equally importance.