斯金纳Verbal Behavior与奥斯汀Speech Act的解读与翻译

The Interpretation and Translation of Skinner's Verbal Behavior and Austin's Speech Act

Verbal behavior和Speech act分别是斯金纳在《言语行为》和奥斯汀在《如何以言行事》中提出的关键术语。二者的提出都具有开创性贡献:verbal behavior的提出开了言语行为本体研究的先河;speech act的提出开了以言行事研究的先河。然而,学界对其开创性贡献存在极大异议,更有不少学者未基于其学术背景、词源及词典义将二者不加甄别地同译为"言语行为",造成对原著的严重误读。通过追溯这两个术语产生的学术背景、词源及词典义对其进行解读以及译名评价,认为verbal behavior可以保留"言语行为"这一译名,speech act应译成"言语举动"。

Verbal behavior and speech act were the key terms proposed respectively in Skinner＇s Verbal Behaviorand Austin＇s How to do Things with Words.The propositions of the two terms both had groundbreaking contributions：verbal behavior had become the forerunner of the ontological research on verbal behavior,and speech act had opened the beginning of the research on doing things with words.However,scholars in the academic circles strongly disagreed on their pioneering contributions,and many scholars did not discriminate the two on the basis of their academic backgrounds,etymologies and dictionary meanings and translated them into the same name,resulting in a serious misreading of the original work.By tracing their academic backgrounds,etymologies and dictionary meanings to interpret these two terms and evaluate their translations,verbal behavior can retain its original translation ＂Yanyuxingwei＂,speech act should be translated into ＂Yanyujudong＂.