否定存在句难题的一种语用学解答方案——“语言游戏”的视角

A Solution On The Puzzle Of Negative Existentials——From the perspective of language games

查拉巴缇从语言游戏的视角来解答否定存在句难题,其语言游戏框架区分了普通游戏和主游戏。普通游戏包括关于时空世界谈论的游戏、虚构游戏等。主游戏不同于普通游戏,是跨语言游戏。主游戏中像“福尔摩斯不存在”这样的否定存在句既是关于主项所谈论的对象的,又是真的,是一种语义—语用断言。本文从空名是否真的为空、存在是否是一阶谓词、否定存在句是否为真等角度对查拉巴缇的观点进行分析和讨论,并指出,从语言游戏角度对否定存在句难题的解答符合人们的日常语言使用习惯,具有重要的认识论意义。

Chakrabarti tries to solve the puzzle of negative existentials from the perspective of language games.He distinguishes ordinary games and master game in his framework of language games.Ordinary games include the talk about the spatio-temporal world,the talk in and about fictions,and so on.Master game is different from ordinary games and it is a trans-game.In master game,the sentence of“Holmes does not exist”is about the object of the subject and is true.It is a semantic-pragmatic claim.In the article,the following questions are discussed,for example,whether empty names are really empty,whether“exists”is a first-order predicate,whether negative existentials are really true.In the end,the author points out that the solution from the perspective of language games is in accordance with our habits of using ordinary languages and that Chakrabarti’s solution on negative existentials has important epistemological significance.