谈列文森等级数量含义

Further Discussion on Levinson’s Scalar Quantity Implicature

列文森(Levinson)三原则弥补了格赖斯(Grice)合作原则对一般会话含义缺乏解释力的不足,尤其是他的等级数量原则,有一定的实用性,经常被拿来解释很多语言现象.然而,列文森过于夸大了逻辑的作用,而忽视了语言运用这么一个大环境,这样就造成了在实际语言运用中一些语言现象逻辑不能解释,或者在逻辑上可接受但在实际运用中却不合理的现象.此外,由于目前义素分析很难将每个词分析到最终可以比较的程度,这也成为判断各个等级项之间的语义强弱关系的障碍.笔者将从语义蕴涵的不一致性、逻辑蕴涵与语义蕴涵的区别、等级含义可撤销性的可接受程度等方面论述等级数量含义,希望能进一步完善列文森三原则之一的等级数量原则,尤其是弥补这一原则在语言实际运用中可操作性方面的一些不足.

Levinson's Three Principles of Conversational Impl icature have complem ented Grice's Co-operative Principle on the explanation of the conventional mea n ing. Levinson's scalar quantity principle, one of the three principles, is often applied to explaining many language phenomena. However, Levinson has exaggerate d the function of logic and neglected the context of language use. Besides, the difficulty of analyzing every word to the comparable level has also been an obst acle to distinguishing the scalar items according to their strength. In this pap er, we will discuss Levinson's Scalar Quantity Principle in terms of the inconsi stency of semantic entailment, the difference between logical entailment and sem antic entailment, and the acceptance of scalar implicature's cancellability, hop ing to improve Levinson's Scalar Quantity Principle in real language use.