数词逻辑意义与语用意义的儿童习得

Logical Meaning vs. Pragmatic Meaning: A Study from the Perspective of Child Acquisition of Numerals

本研究以数词的意义解读为切入点,讨论会话隐含产生的缘由,逻辑意义与语用意义的关系。研究对以普通话为母语的39名3-6岁儿童和12名成人进行测试,测试结果表明:确切数字解读是数词意义的根本,是语义解读,它相对独立于语境,对语境信息量的要求低,易于计算,是儿童较早获得的解读;"至少"解读和"最多"解读是语用解读,对语境信息的依赖性较强,计算较复杂,是儿童较晚获得的解读;相对缺省论而言,关联论关于逻辑意义与语用意义关系的假设更符合语言习得的事实。

Based on the experiment on Mandarin-speaking children and adults, the study aims to discuss the relationship between logical meaning and pragmatic meaning by investigating how the subjects interpret numerals in Mandarin when the contextual information varies. According to our experimental results, the exact number reading of a numeral can be triggered without requiring much contextual information, so as the logical reading it is acquired earlier by children. By contrast, the "at-most" reading and "at-least" reading can be triggered only when much more contextual information is provided, which clarifies their status as pragmatic readings. For the complexity in computing these two readings, 5-to 6-year-olds are still different from adults in judging these two readings. The results also add support to the claim within the framework of the Relevance Theory that logical meaning, which works with contextual information, constitutes the basis for the computation of pragmatic meaning.