汉英低调陈述认知语言学新索

A New Inquiry into Chinese-English Understatement in the Field of Cognitive Linguistics

低调陈述是日常生活和文学作品中惯用的一种修辞手段.已有研究均是从语言本体角度分析低调陈述的语用功能及其作为修辞手段的种种表现手法,少有学者考辨低调陈述的具体形成程序和深层认知机制.本文提出,低调陈述是人类认知方式之一.发话者操用认知思维知识结构,构成低调陈述.本文主要尝试从认知的崭新高度重新审视低调陈述的滋生程序并探究其汉英异同与发生理据,希冀有助于言语交际者进一步洞悉低调陈述这一语言现象.

Understatement is a rhetorical device widely adopted in daily conversations and literary works. However, most of the former researches focus on rhetorical and pragmatic functions instead of the formation constitution and cognitive mechanism of understatements. This paper holds that the expression of understatements is one of the human cognitive methods. The speaker uses the knowledge structure of the cognition to constitute understatement. This paper attempts to explore the generating procedures of understatement from the perspective of cognitive metaphor and the similarities and differences between Chinese and English as well as their motivations, so as to help people make a deeper insight into the language phenomenon of understatements.