同义反复话语的信息冗余性及其交际功能

Tautology: Information Redundancy and its Communicative Function

本文从通信工程的视角入手,考察同义反复话语的信息冗余性及其在信息传递中的功能与价值。同义反复的特征在于其语义无信息性,其性质为信息冗余,其使用是为了抵消噪声对所传递信息的干扰。在通信工程中,"噪声"指的是任何妨碍信号在系统中真实传递的干扰或瑕疵。在言语交际中,存在着妨碍信息真实传递的各种干扰因素,其中就包括信息接收者(受话人)所持有的与信息发出者(发话人)所发出的信息不一致的甚至相抵触的信息,这些信息对于信息发出者而言是干扰信息真实传递的信息噪声。言语交际是信息协商的过程,发话人为了保证其信息真实有效地为受话人所接受,就需要采取相应策略以克服来自包括受话人所持信息的噪声干扰。同义反复正是为了满足这一功能需求交际者所采取的一种"工具性策略"。简而言之,同义反复的功能在于通过一种"工具性策略"获得信息冗余以消除信息噪声对所传递信息的干扰,从而保证话语信息在言语交际中传递的信度与效度。

From the perspective of communication engineering,this paper addresses the functions that tautology serves in the transmission of information.Tautology,which is characteristic of being semantically uninformative,hence producing information redundancy in the communicative system,serves to counteract the distorting effects of the information noise from the addressee.In information engineering,noise refers to any disturbances or defects in the system which interfere with the faithful transmission of signal.While in any verbal communication,information noise,the addressee-held information that is incompatible,even in conflict with the transmitted information,is one of such disturbing variables that interfere with the reliability and efficiency of information transmission.Verbal communication is an information negotiating process in which communicators take measures to counteract the disturbances or defects caused by information noise so as to guarantee the faithful and reliable transmission of information.Tautology is an“instrumental strategy”employed by the addresser that satisfies that need.In short,the function of tautology lies in the role that tautology plays as an instrumental strategy in producing information redundancy that counteracts the disturbing effects of information noise to the transmitted information so as to guarantee the reliability and efficiency of information transmission in verbal communication.