语言学专业知识与语义直觉判断——一项关于专名指称的实证研究

Linguistic Expertise and Semantic Intuition ─An Experimental Study of the Reference of Proper Names

近年来,西方语言分析哲学出现的实验转向引人注目。一些语言哲学家诉诸实验手段,对长期以来争论不休的语言哲学命题展开实证研究,其研究结果往往与坐而论道的哲学家持有的观点大相径庭。由此引发的问题包括:直觉判断是否受专业知识影响?普通大众的直觉判断是否可靠?语言哲学研究是否应倚重专家的直觉判断?针对这类问题,本文通过问卷调查方法对81名受试关于专名指称的语义直觉进行研究,发现语言学专业知识的确影响语义直觉判断;而且得出初步结论:专业知识越丰富,直觉判断的可靠性越高。

The experimental turn in contemporary analytic philosophy of language has received much attention in the past decade. Appealing to intuitions of ordinary people, some philosophers have re-examined the long-held classical debates in philosophy of language experimentally, the results of which are radically different from views entertained by philosophers used to armchair-theorizing. The issues under exploration include： 1 ） Does expertise influence people＇s intuitive judgments？ 2） Is folk＇s intuition reliable？ 3 ） Should philosophical theories be grounded on expert intuition rather than folk＇s intuition？ To tap further into these questions, this study experimentally investigates 81 mainland Chinese speakers＇ semantic intuition about the reference of proper names. The findings indicate that linguistic expertise does impact semantic intuition and tentatively speaking, expertise also increases the reliability of people＇s intuitive judgments.