负极词的曲言功能及其语用定位

The litotic use of negative polarity items and pragmatic adjustment

减弱型负极词可用作曲言(litotes)。曲言是用否定对立的一端来肯定另一端的修辞手法(Jespersen1917:62-63)。Horn(1989)和Levinson(2000)分别用一般会话含义理论中的R和I准则来解释曲言的含义推导。Israel(2006)认为同样可用R准则来解释某些减弱型负极词的含义。本文对以上阐释方法提出质疑,指出应从特殊会话含义理论的角度阐释曲言的含义推导,认为对曲言的理解涉及解歧和语用定位,即听话人在最佳相关语境假设启示下选择梯级中的末端值,从而充实话语的内涵。

The attenuating negative polarity items can be used as litotes.Litotes is an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary.Horn (1989) and Levinson (2000) argue respectively that the implicature of litotes is generated by R-Principle and I-Principle in the theory of generalized conversational implicature.Israel (2006) points out that R-principle is also responsible for the derivations of implicatures conveyed by some understating negative polarity items.These explanations leave much room to be desired.We argue that litotes should be explained by the theory of particularized implicature.In fact,the interpretation of litotes is determined by disambiguation and pragmatic adjustment.Namely,the addressee,constrained by the optimal contextual assumption,chooses the intended scalar endpoint and strengthens the semantic contents of litotes.