从逻辑和会话含意的角度看either...or的意义

On Meanings of "Either...or" from the Perspective of Logic and Conversational Implicature

英语短语either...or表示选择关系或析取关系。逻辑中的析取关系分为相容析取关系和不相容析取关系两种,该短语究竟表示哪种析取关系是一个有争议的问题。Grice的会话含意理论为这个争议提供了一种解决方法。会话含意的可取消性质被视为区分语言单位的语义意义和语用意义的有效工具。借助这个工具我们得出结论:相容析取关系是either...or的语义意义,而不相容析取关系是它的语用意义。

The English phrase ＂either... or＂ means a disjunctive relation. There are two kinds of disjunctive relation in logic： inclusive disjunction and exclusive disjunction. Which disjunctive relation the phrase means is a controversial issue. Gricean Theory of Conversational Implicature provides a resolution for the controversy. Cancellability of conversational implicature is regarded as an effective instrument to distinguish semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning of a language unit. By virtue of the instrument we conclude that inclusive disjunction is sernantic meaning of the phrase and exclusive disjunction is its pragmatic meaning.