意义·意图·规约:对格赖斯意义理论的再思考

Meaning, Intention and Convention: A Revisit of the Gricean Theory of Meaning

格赖斯的意义理论是一种以说话者为中心的概念分析模式,其发展经历了前、后两个阶段。前期,格赖斯将意义区分为"自然意义"和"非自然意义",并着重论述了二者的区别;后期,他对"自然意义"和"非自然意义"进行了重新定位,提出后者可由前者派生而来的"祖先/后裔说",并对前者进行了重新厘定:从表征必然联系的非理性事实修正为侧重指规约意义的制度性事实。可见,格赖斯的意义理论虽突显说话者意图的中心地位,但并未否定规约的存在,而且在他后期语言哲学思想中,规约的地位更是得到彰显。

The Gricean theory of meaning is a speaker-centered conceptual analysis model. In its early stage, Grice divided meaning into “natural meaning” and “non-natural meaning”, laying focus on the distinction between the two. In its late stage, however, Grice reexamined the connections between the two notions, and initiated the “ancestor/descendant theory”, arguing that “non-natural meaning” could derive from “natural meaning”. Grice also revised the definition of “natural meaning”, changing it from “being the truth-valuable meaning, bound to brute facts” to being “conventional meaning, bound to institutional facts”. Thus, though Grice put the speaker’s intention at the heart of his theory, never did he shake off the existence of convention. Instead, the role of convention is highlighted in the late stage of his philosophy of language.