相对熟悉度和同音线索在谐音型歇后语理解中的作用

Processing of Chinese homophonic two-part allegoric sayings: Effects of familiarity and homophone

谐音型歇后语是汉语特殊的语汇表达形式,对其加工常常需要通达后一语节的同音线索来完成语音、语义隐喻映射。本研究通过2个实验探讨相对熟悉度和同音线索类型对谐音型歇后语加工的作用。实验1结果表明,在高熟悉度条件下,被试对语汇的加工策略取决于歇后语的同音线索类型。当后一语节为同音字时,加工较为快速;当后一语节为谐音字时,通达歇后语隐喻意义的路径受阻。对熟悉度较高的谐音型歇后语进行加工,语义通达表现出预存性;在缺乏同音线索的条件下,语料加工时间较长,反应准确率较低,支持概念隐喻模型和概念合成假说。而对熟悉度较低的歇后语进行加工,被试更倾向于采用即时(on-line)策略,支持概念合成理论和基于心理模型的语用推理假说。实验2结果表明,呈现“错误同音”线索对歇后语的加工形成干扰,不支持概念合成理论和基于心理模型的语用推理理论。总的结果表明,相对熟悉度和同音线索类型影响谐音型歇后语的通达,谐音歇后语加工需要同时激活语音和语义两条通道。

Two-part allegorical sayings are a typical language form in Chinese.Understanding two-part allegorical saying involves the ability to understand figurative meanings.Chinese two-part allegorical sayings convey figurative meanings by activating either homophonic or conceptual associations.Homophonic associations are realized based on a conceptual connection between the two homophonic expressions:the second part of the sayings and the expression of the idiomatic meaning.Within the example of Lao tai tai shang ji wo(老太太上鸡窝)—ben dan(笨蛋),a situation is described as an old lady(lao tai tai or老太太)is about to walk towards a henhouse(shang ji wo or上鸡窝),which is reflected in the second part that the purpose of doing this is“heading for eggs”(ben dan or奔蛋).The intended interpretation of the saying“an idiot”(ben dan or笨蛋)could not be worked out without the help of a very crucial apparatus—sound association;that is,“heading for eggs”is pronounced the same with“an idiot”in Chinese with respect to the same segmental combinations and tone patterns.Within the paradigm of sound association,the meaning identified in the source domain(the first part;in our example,the old lady’s behavior)is also observed in the target domain(the second part;in our example,the figurative meaning of the old lady’s behavior)in a metaphoric way through mapping between the two domains,resulting in a shifting from a concrete concept to an abstract one.Mapping,which was described by Lakoff and Johnson in their Conceptual Metaphor Theory,has been considered a powerful theory in interpreting metaphors.Fauconnier proposed Conceptual Blending Theory,emphasizing that mapping happens across spaces via connecting counterparts in the input mental spaces.In our example,it connects one mental space contained the image of an old lady walking towards a henhouse and another mental space describing the purpose of carrying out this behavior.Then the mapping happens when the mental apparatus identifies the sound similarity and generates the intended meaning.Meanwhile,the knowledge of recognizing implicature(Xu,2005)in pragmatic inference also plays a crucial role in processing two-part allegorical sayings.From this perspective,Chinese two-part allegorical sayings are one of the ideal languages.The successful understanding of them couldn’t be accomplished without considering how people interpret in their real usage.There are three theories relevant to interpreting of Chines two-part allegorical sayings,but what we wonder is which theory is more powerful in explaining the processing of homophonic two-part allegorical sayings in terms of various degrees?Does sound association play a crucial role in the processing?In order to answer these questions,two experiments were designed by using eye-movement instrument:experiment 1 investigated the effect of various degrees of familiarity on the processing of two different types of back parts(homophonic association/phonography),for example,老太太上鸡窝—奔蛋is phonography because there is no metaphoric inference between front and back parts,but老太太上鸡窝—笨蛋is with homophonic association because the implied meaning(笨蛋)is inferred from the words(奔蛋)through sound similarity.We asked the participants to judge the semantic relatedness between front and back parts and we found that the judgment was determined by the type of back parts,that is,the homophone facilitated the participants’judgment because of the sound association;while phonography forced participants to infer the implied meaning of the sayings.Meanwhile,participants took longer time to process the sayings with high familiarity and made more errors in the judgment task,the reason of which might be caused by the negative effect of long-term memory.The result supported the Conceptual Metaphor theory and Conceptual Blending theory.However,participants adopted a quite different processing strategy called the on-line processing strategy when the sayings were with low familiarity.The result supported the Pragmatic Inference theory.Experiment 2 investigated how various intonations affected the judgment of semantic relatedness between front and back parts.The results showed that the characters with the same sound pattern but not with the same intonation(e.g.笨、本、奔)exerted different influences on the judgment.Specifically,the character“本”,which does not fit into the meaning of any of the two parts,did not play a role in the processing.The result does not support the Conceptual Blending theory.