百科知识以图式形式在话语理解过程中的作用

The Functions of Schematized Encyclopedic Information in the Process of Natural Language Understanding

Sperber & Wilson的关联理论认为话语理解的过程实质上是认知的推理过程,这种推理是非论证性的。百科知识是这一过程的重要参与因素,它以图式的形式储存在人脑长时记忆中。受话者百科知识的结构制约着受话者认知语境的选择和构建,从而制约着话语的理解。文章先对图式和话语理解的一般过程及参与因素进行简要概述,然后重点分析话语理解者的百科知识结构在选择和构建最佳相关语境过程中的重要作用,最后阐述百科知识以图式形式对话语理解的作用对外语教学的启示。

Sperber & Wilson present a new approach to the study of human communication which is grounded in a general view of human cognition. They argue that the process of natural language understanding is a cognitive inferential process and the process of inferential comprehension is non-demonstrative. Encyclopedic information is one of important factors in this process. Psychologists use the term -schema to describe the structure of encyclopedic information stored in long-term memory. The organization of the hearer's encyclopedic memory, and the mental activity in which he is engaged, limit the class of potential contexts from which an actual context can be chosen at any given time. It thus influences the hearers' understanding of natural language. After a brief introduction of schema, the process of natural language understanding and its factors, this paper lays stress on the important functions of encyclopedic information in choice of context. The last part of this paper is about the enlightenments from it for the foreign language teaching.