汉语级差词项“一些”的语义-语用解读

The Semantic-Pragmatic Interpretations of the Chinese Scalar Item“Yixie”

近年来一些研究者发现,某些引发级差含义的级差词项的语义内容与Horn的经典论述不尽相同并提出质疑。本文采用心理学实验的方法探究汉语级差词项"一些"的语义内容,尝试以此为出发点重新审视级差含义的性质,进一步探究语义和语用之间的关系。实验结果表明,汉语数量词"一些"的语义内容表示不确定数量,可以包含上限"全部"。这一结果与Horn的解释相一致,但汉语"一些"的核心意义仅仅表达全部数量中较小的部分,而"全部"处于语义的上限边缘位置,引发级差含义的产生。同时,"一些"的语义内容与其级差含义之间的关系表明,话语的语义内容与语用扩充意义之间无清晰分界,是一个连续统一体。

Recent studies have revealed that the semantic content of some scalar items is not the same as Horn＇ s original proposal, which therefore leads to some issues to be addressed. This paper aims to identify the semantic content of Chinese scalar item ＂yixie＂ through conducting a psychological experiment, which is designed to re-examine the nature of scalar implicatures with re- gard to the relationship between semantics and pragmatics. Our primary results suggest that the semantic content of the Chinese quantifier ＂yixie＂ denotes indefinite quantity, and may include, to some extent, the upper bound ＂all＂. This result is well con- sistent with Horn＇s explanation. However, the core meaning of ＂yixie＂ denotes smaller proportional quantity, with its upper bound ＂all＂ being peripheral where scalar implicature tends to be generated. The result also indicates that the semantic content of an utterance and its enrichment present a continuum without a clear borderline.