数词的逻辑意义与语用意义

The Logical Meaning and Pragmatic Meaning of Numerals

目前语言学界关于数词的逻辑意义主要存在下限语义论、双边限定语义论、多义论和语义不确定论四种看法。本文通过比较各家观点发现,对数词语义的认识之所以存在争议,是因为学界对语境多大程度上影响真值意义这一问题有不同的立场。数词的语义问题推而广之就是语义学和语用学的分工问题。本文认为确定数词的语义需要独立的经验证据,对儿童习得数词的研究可能为辨明数词的语义提供启示。

There are different views on the semantics （logical meaning） of numerals in linguistics. Neo-Gricean theorists hold that numerals have ＂at-least＂ semantics; whereas the ＂exactly＂ reading is basically pragmatic. A rather different view is that n means ＂exactly n＂. Both the ＂atleast＂ and ＂at-most＂ readings of numerals are derived due to a pragmatic intrusion of truth conditional meaning of the propositions containing number words. A third opinion proposes that numerals are semantically ambiguous between ＂at-least n＂ and ＂exactly n＂, and these two meanings are related through some type-shifting rules. In contrast to all these theories, Relevance Theory argues that numerals are semantically incomplete, thus subject to pragmatic instantiation. ＂at-least＂, ＂exactly＂ and ＂at-most＂ readings are results of pragmatic enrichment. A detailed comparison of all these views reveals that the inconsistency can be traced to different positions hold on the role of context in truth conditional meaning. The meaning of numerals is at the interface between semantics and pragmatics. The present paper argues that independent empirical evidence is needed in judging the semantics of numerals. Researches on children＇ s acquisition of number words may provide us with this type of evidence.